From  new  England 


To  The  Paoifm 


IINtVERSIT.      ^ 
t^lFORNlA 

$M^  DIEGO 


PtOil  iW  him  TO  THE  Phic. 


Notes  OF  A  Vacation  Trip  Across  THE 
IN  April,  May,  and 


J.  A.  S.,  IN  Hartford  Evening  Post. 


HARTFORD,  CONN.: 

PRESS   OF   THE   CASE,    LOCKWOOD   &   BKAINARD   CO. 

1884. 


REMAEK. 


The  thirteen  letters  which  constitute  this 
vohime  were  originally  contributed  to  The 
Haktfoed  Evening  Post  by  one  of  the 
representatives  of  that  journal  whose  good 
fortune  it  was  to  be  also  a  member  of  the 
Eaymond  Excursion  Party  which  left  Boston 
for  the  Pacific  Coast  on  the  24th  of  April 
last.  The  letters  w^ere  not  written  with 
reference  to  any  further  publication,  and 
they  appear  in  this  form  solely  through 
respect  of  the  writer  for  the  wishes  of  those 
of  the  party  who  could  not  be  supplied  with 
Hies  of  The  Post  containing  the  full  series. 

J.  A.  S. 
Hartford,  June  30,  1884. 


PERSONNEL, 


W.  Raymoxd, 
C.  C.  Harding, 
H.  A.  TiTU3, 

H.  H.  FULLAM, 

Almy,  Chas.  T., 
Andrews,  S.  C, 
Andrews,  Mrs.  S.  C, 
Andrews,  Thomas  E., 
Andrews,  Mrs.  Thomas  E. 
Bacon,  Mrs.  J.  E., 
Bradley,  H.  O., 
Bradley,  Mrs.  H,  O., 
Brown,  Mrs.  Mary  S., 
Ball,  Sidney  A., 
Chase,  Mrs.  S.  A.  D., 
Cox,  Rev.  Samuel, 
Cox,  Mrs.  Samuel, 
Craven,  John  V., 
Denison,  Miss  T.  A., 
Fish,  Daniel  W., 
Goodspeed,  Dr.  Helen  A., 
Grout,  Mrs.  Mary  J., 
Hamilton,  S., 
Hamilton,  Mrs.  S., 
Hamilton,  Master, 
Hamilton,  Master, 


Boston,  Mass.,  Manager, 
Boston,  Mass.,  In  Charge. 
Bellows  Falls,  Vt.,  Assistant. 
Concord,  N.  H.,  AssistMit 

Tilton,  N.H. 
Worcester,  Mass. 
Worcester,  Mass. 
Holliston,  Mass. 
Holliston,  Mass. 
Worcester,  Mass. 
Worcester,  Mass. 
Worcester,  Mass, 
Lynn,  Mass. 
Carlisle,  Mass. 
Roxbury,  Mass. 
Newtown,  N.  Y. 
Newtown,  N.  Y. 
Salem,  X.  J. 
Springfield,  Mass. 
Brooklyn,  X.  Y. 
Worcester,  Mass. 
Worcester,  Mass, 
Pittsburgh,  Pa. 
Pittsburgh,  Pa. 
Pittsburgh,  Pa. 
Pittsburgh,  Pa. 


PERSONNEL. 


Howe,  George, 
Howe,  Mrs.  George, 
Kimball,  Miss  J.  W., 
Knowlton,  A., 
Longman,  Mrs.  Kate, 
Marx,  Hon.  Guido, 
Marx,  Mrs.  Guido, 
Marx,  Mi.ss  Ella, 
Maseey,  Mrs.  L.  D., 
Merriman,  E.  A., 
Merrimau,  Mrs.  E.  A., 
Mills,  Hiram  F., 
Mills,  Mrs.  Hiram  F., 
Mcculloch.  Mrs.  L.  S., 
Nichols,  Chas.  H., 
Nichols,  Mrs.  Chas.  H., 
Pinney,  C.  H.,  M.D., 
Pinney,  Mrs.  C.  H., 
Reed,  Miss  Sophia, 
Richards,  F.  C, 
Riedler,  Max, 
Shattuck,  H.  B., 
Shattuck,  Miss  Bertha  C. 
Spalding,  J.  A., 
Taft.Mrs.  Calvin, 
Talbot,  Seth,  Jr., 
Talbot,  Mrs.  Seth,  Jr., 
Tenney,  Alfred  E., 
Valpey,  H.R., 
Valpey,  Mrs.  H.  R., 
Whidden,  Thomas  J., 
Whidden,  S.  H., 
Williams,  Mrs.  J.  M., 
Worcester,  Rev.  J.  H., 
Worcester,  Mrs.  J.  H., 


Lynn,  Mass. 
Lynn,  Mass. 
Worcester,  Mass, 
West  Gardner,  Mass. 
Brooklyn,  X.  Y. 
Toledo,  Ohio. 
Toledo,  Ohio. 
Toledo.  Ohio. 
Danvers,  Mass. 
Meriden,  Conn. 
Meriden,  Conn. 
Lawrence,  Mass. 
Lawrence,  Mass. 
Stevens  Point,  Wis. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Derby,  Conn. 
Derby,  Conn. 
Lynn,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Lowell,  Mass. 
Lowell,  Mass. 
Hartford,  Conn. 
Worcester,  Mass. 
Tremont,  III. 
Tremont,  111. 
Providence,  R.  I. 
Lynn,  Mass. 
Lynn,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Boston,  Mass. 
Worcester,  Mass. 
Burlington,  Vt. 
Burlington,  Vt. 


COIs'TENTS 


I.  First  Notes  of  the  Journey,        -           -  9 

II.  From  Chicago  to  Colorado,         -           -  18 

III.  In  and  About  Denver,      -  -            -  31 

IV.  Up  Among  and  Over  the  Rockies,  -  45 
V.  Deserts,  Flowers,  Orange  Groves,  Vine- 
yards,    -            -            -           -           -  67 

VI.  Delightful  Days  at  Los  Angeles,             -  80 

VII.  Tehachapi  Pass  and  the  Sierra  Nevadas,  94 

VIII.  The  California  of  '49  and  '84,     -           -  108 

IX.  The  Sundries  of  San  Francisco,             -  126 

X.  Menlo  Park  and  Santa  Clara  Valley,     -  139 

XL  A  Long-to-be-Remembered  "Week,         -  153 

XII.  C4ood-Bye  to  San  Francisco,       -           -  166 

XIII.  The  Backward  Journey— Home  Again,  185 


I. 


First  Notes  of  the  Journey — Tlie  Start — 
The  Party — In  a  Pullman  Sleeper — Tlie 
Route — Chicago  and  its  Characteristics — Be- 
coming  Well  Acquainted. 

SiiERMAx  House,  Chicago,  III., 
April  27,  18SJ:. 
And  this  is  Chicago ;  great,  bustling, 
grimy,  wicked  Chicago.  I  came  in  yester- 
day at  its  back  door,  as  one  must  enter  every 
city  who  enters  it  by  railroad ;  and  the  back 
door  of  Chicago  is  not  unlike  that  of  a 
hundred  other  American  cities,  with  its 
uncanny  brats,  its  squalid  women,  its  miser- 
able hovels,  and  its  irrepressible  goat.  In 
approaching  Boston,  for  miles  in  any  direc- 
tion tlie  observer  is  favored  with  a  distinct 
view  of  the  citv  in  wonderful  and  charm ino; 


10  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

detail ;  in  approaching  Chicago,  only  an 
impenetrable  clond  of  smoke  indicates  its- 
locality,  completely  enveloping  and  obscur- 
ing from  remote  view  every  object,  how- 
ever otherwise  prominent.  This  omnipres- 
ent smoke  is  a  feature  of  Chicago  existence. 
It  comes  from  the  universal  combustion  of 
their  bituminous  coal.  It  impregnates  the 
atmosphere  and  fills  the  nostrils  with  every 
breath.  It  begrimes  architecture,  it  invades 
the  inner  sanctuary  of  home  to  the  discom- 
fiture of  tidy  housekeepers,  it  precludes  the 
possibility  of  clean  linen,  or  clean  hands,  or 
clean  anything,  and,  to  an  Eastern  man, 
proves  a  source  of  constant  discomfort. 
Doubtless  the  citizen  becomes  so  accus- 
tomed to  it  as  not  to  be  annoyed,  although 
I  do  not  see  how  he  can  help  regretting  that 
some  of  the  beautiful  and  costly  marble 
buildings  are  so  stained  and  aged  after  a 
brief  exposure  to  this  coal  smoke,  as  to  be 
indistinguishable  from  commonest  stone. 
As  you  will  observe  from  my  date,  tliis  is 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  \\ 

Sunday.  I  suppose  tlie  proper  thing  for  me 
to  do  this  morning  would  have  been  to  join 
tlie  company  of  worshipers  at  Dr.  Kit- 
tridge's.  But  instead  I  strolled  down  Mich- 
igan avenue,  by  the  lakeside,  past  the  great 
exposition  building  where  the  national  Ke- 
publican  and  Democratic  Conventions  are 
soon  to  assemble,  through  Broadway,  over 
the  Randolph  street  bridge,  and  after  a  cir- 
cuit of  eight  or  ten  miles  thus  made  on  foot, 
feel  almost  sorry  that  I  did  not  adopt  the  more 
restful  plan  of  my  friend  Mr.  Fish,  who 
spent  his  hour  on  the  cushions  of  tlie  sanc- 
tuary above  alluded  to.  In  my  profane 
tramp  I  have  noticed  that  a  Christian  ob- 
servance of  the  Sabbath  is  not  the  fashion 
in  Chicago.  There  seems  to  be  no  general 
suspension  of  business.  Of  course  the  street 
and  railroad  cars  run  as  often  as  on  any  other 
day,  but  stores,  and  offices,  and  shops  are 
open  and  doing  business,  loaded  trucks  and 
express  wagons  are  busy,  hucksters  cry  their 
wares  on  the  sidewalks,  and  there  is  very 


12  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

little  to  distinguish  Sunday  from  the   day 
last  preceding, 

I  spent  two  or  three  hours  yesterday 
among  public  buildings  and  getting  impres- 
sions of  men  and  things  in  this  incompre- 
hensible city.  I  saw  the  three-million-dollar 
€Ounty  building  on  Randolph  street,  with  its 
eighty  odd  rooms,  in  all  but  a  half  a  dozen 
of  which  tliey  have  to  keep  gas  burning 
because  insufficient  daylight  enters  through 
the  oddly  placed  windows.  I  passed  over 
the  long  bridge  which  crosses  the  railroads 
converging  here,  and  counted  sixty-three 
sets  of  tracks  running  side  by  side  beneath 
it.  I  went  throuo^h  some  of  the  elegant 
apartments  of  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel,  and 
for  a  moment  interviewed  one  of  the  roy- 
ally arrayed  clerks,  who  evidently  wouldn't 
swap  places  with  the  Czar  of  all  the  Russias. 
I  looked  down  (as  far  as  the  smoke  would 
permit)  the  magnificent  distance  of  Michi- 
gan avenue — seven  miles  as  straight  as  an 
arrow,   and  flat  as   a  floor.     I   crossed   the 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  ^g 

beautifully  located  but  sadly  neglected  park 
just  l:)elow  the  Baltimore  c^  Ohio  Railroad 
station,  to  one  of  the  wharves,  and  enjoyed  a 
half  hour  on  board  a  little  excursion  steamer, 
taking  in  a  trip  around  "  The  Pier  "  at  an 
expense  of  a  dime.  I  looked  in  vain 
for  a  transparent  drop  of  the  clay-col- 
ored waters  of  Lake  Michigan  as  they 
rippled  beneath  the  guards  of  the  little 
steamer  or  rested  untouched  in  my  goblet 
at  the  dinner  table.  I  paused  occasion- 
ally on  the  street  to  attempt  a  mental 
analysis  of  the  economy  of  wooden  j^ave- 
ments  and  sidewalks  of  the  same  material. 
But  I  pondered  longest  over  the  fearful  and 
wonderful  make-up  of  the  Chicagoan,  him- 
self and  herself.  He,  lacking  the  infinite 
repose  of  the  solid  and  methodical  Bostonian, 
as  v>'ell  as  the  resolute  promptness  and 
tireless  activity  of  the  representative  Xew 
Y(jrk  business  man,  is  something  so  thor- 
oughly American  that,  whether  rampant  or 
couchant,  he  has  the  appearance  of  being  in 


14:  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

a 

liis  accomplishments  a  constant  surprise  to 
himself,  as  he  certainly  is  to  the  slower  go- 
ing world  outside.  And  she — what  shall  I 
say  of  her  i  In  dress  she  adopts  the  fancies 
of  every  nation  under  the  sun,  w4th  a  pre- 
ponderance of  neither ;  in  form  and  manner 
she  is  natural  to  the  last  degree ;  in  mind 
and  feature  prepossessing,  though  in  unac- 
countable contrast  with  her  local  contem- 
poraries of  the  other  sex ;  and  as  to  the 
peculiarity  of  her  gait,  it  is  proverbial  that 
nature  has  been  generous  to  the  Chicago 
woman,  which  is  all  that  need  he  said  on 
that  subject. 

But  I  am  spending  too  much  time  in  Chi- 
cago, without  saying  a  word  of  how  or  why 
I  happen  to  be  here.  It  is  my  good  fortune 
to  be  one  of  sixty-three  l^ew  Englanders 
who,  some  weeks  ago,  decided  on  a  junketing 
trip  to  Colorado  and  California,  under  the 
special  charge  of  llr.  W.  Eaymond  of  Bos- 
ton, whose  name  and  fame  in  such  connec- 
tion  are  household  words   throughout   the 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  \^ 

East.  In  accordance  with  his  plan,  Green- 
field, Mass.,  was  made  the  place  of  rendez- 
vous, and  on  the  evening  of  Thursday,  April 
twenty-fourth,  the  sixty  odd  gentlemen  and 
ladies  made  successful  departure  from  that 
place  in  three  Pullman  palace  sleepers,  at- 
tached to  the  regular  Pacific  Express  over 
the  :N"ew  York,  West  Shore  &  Bufialo 
Pailroad.  Among  the  members  of  the  party 
whose  names  you  will  recognize,  are  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  S.  C.  Andrews,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  H. 
O.  Bradley  of  Worcester,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  E. 
A.  Merriman  of  Meriden,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  H. 
F.  Mills  of  Lawrence,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  C.  H. 
Pinney  of  Derby,  Mr.  H.  B.  Shattuck  and 
daughter  of  Lowell,  Mr.  A.  E.  Tenney  of 
Providence,  Mr.  T.  J.  Whidden  and  son  of 
Boston,  and  your  correspondent  of  Llart- 
ford.  Mr.'  Max  "Reidler  of  Boston,  one  of 
Messrs.  Prang  &  Go's  well-known  artists,  is 
also  among  the  party,  and  has  atibrded  us 
no  small  degi'ee  of  pleasure  hy  his  happy 
portraits  and  caricatures  of  the  excursionists 


1Q  FROM   NEW  ENGLAND 

in  tlieir  respective  attitudes  and  habiliments. 
To  many  the  first  night^s  experience  in  a 
sleeping  car  was  a  novelty,  and  the  prepa- 
rations for  retiring  were,  perhaps,  less  com- 
plete than  they  would  have  been  under 
other  circumstances.  In  general,  however, 
the  situation  was  accepted  philosophically, 
and  subsequent  events  have  shown  how 
easily  one  may  accustom  himself  or  herself 
to  what  has  seemed  unpleasant  in  anticipa- 
tion, after  once  the  inauguration  is  over.  Our 
full  train  consisted  of  fourteen  Pullman 
cars,  and  tlie  route,  as  far  as  Buffalo,  was 
near  to  and  parallel  with  the  Xew  York  Cen- 
tral (fe  Erie  Canal.  Meals  were  provided^ 
generally,  on  itinerary  time,  at  hotels, 
restaurants,  or  in  the  company's  dining-cars, 
and  thus  far  the  trip  has  been  very  comfort- 
ably made,  and  witliout  any  unexpected  or 
unpleasant  occurrence.  The  time  has  been 
principally  occupied  by  the  excursionists  in 
becoming  well  acquainted  with  one  another, 
in  which  pleasant  exercise  we  have  the  val- 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  17 

liable  and  gracefully  rendered  aid  of  our 
chief,  Mr.  Eajmond.  We  reached  this  city 
Saturday  noon,  and  are  very  acceptably 
quartered  at  the  Sherman  House.  Eleven 
o'clock  to-morrow  morning  is  the  hour  as- 
signed for  resuming  our  journey,  of  which  I 
hope  to  give  you  further  account  in  due 
time. 


Ig  FRO^[  NEW  ENGLAND 


II. 

From  Chicago  to  Colorado — Historical 
Ground. — The  Plains  and  Dugouts — Pueblo 
— The  Rockies — Pike'^s  Peak — Manitou  and 
its  Wonderful  Surroundings. 

Maxitou,  Col.,  May  1st. 
The  Raymond  Excursion  Party  reached 
this  point  last  evening,  having  made  two 
thousand  two  hundred  and  twenty  miles 
of  its  westward  journey  from  Boston.  To 
proceed  chronologically  with  these  notes  of 
our  trip,  I  should  say  that  we  left  Chicago 
on  Monday  morning,  over  the  Chicago,  Rock 
Island  &  Pacific  Railway,  making  our  first 
stop  at  Joliet.  Here  are  the  extensive  quar- 
ries which  furnish  Chicago  with  its  building 
stone  and  flaggings.  The  State  penal  insti- 
tutions  are   also   located  here.      La  Salle, 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  19 

with  its  coal  mines,  tile  factories,  and  great 
zinc  works,  attracted  attention,  but  there 
was  little  else  of  note  until,  at  Moline,  our 
train  suddenly  rolled  up  alongside  the  Miss- 
issippi, and  five  minutes  later  we  were 
crossing  the  immense  double  bridge  which 
connects  Illinois  with  Iowa.  This  was  my 
first  view  of  the  father  of  American  rivers. 
The  stream  here  is  divided  by  Rock  Island, 
upon  which  are  situated  the  United  States 
arsenal  and  machine  shops,  which  were  de- 
signed to  constitute  the  central  and  princi- 
pal government  depot  of  supplies  and  muni- 
tions of  war.  The  wider  and  navigable 
portion  of  the  stream  is  on  the  west  of  the 
island,  and  from  shore  to  shore  the  distance 
is  a  trifle  over  a  mile.  More  than  an  hour 
was  given  us  in  Davenport,  which  time  was 
occupied  by  most  of  the  party  in  a  cursory 
examination  of  this  steady-going  city,  noted 
chiefly  for  being  the  place  where  was  com- 
pleted the  compact  with  the  Indians  which 
opened  up  Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Wisconsin  to 


20  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

white  settlement.  During  the  night  we  had 
opportunity  to  observe  a  prairie  fire  some 
miles  southward.  Tuesday  morning  found 
ns  at  Kansas  City,  which  lies  at  the  junction 
of  the  Missouri  and  Kansas  or  "Kaw" 
Rivers.  The  "Big  Muddy''  was  something 
of  a  surprise  in  its  evident  inferiority  to  the 
Mississippi. 

We  dined  at  Topeka,  having  passed 
through  Lawrence,  leaving  Leavenworth 
and  Atchison  at  the  north  of  us.  This  is 
historical  ground,  and  the  familiar  names  of 
localities  in  this  part  of  Kansas  brought 
vividly  to  mind  the  times  and  events  of 
Missouri  border  rufiians,  and  of  "  old  John 
Brown,"  before  the  inauguration  of  the 
war  of  the  Rebellion.  At  Carbondale  our 
heavy  train  was  "  stalled  "  for  a  few  min- 
utes on  a  steep  grade,  giving  us  opportuni- 
ty to  observe  the  numerous  coal  mines. 
Strata  of  bituminous  coal  underlie  all  this 
part  of  Kansas  at  a  depth  of  from  two  to 
twenty    feet.      The   natives   state   that    in 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  21 

some  places  the  farmer^  come  upon  the  up]>er 
stratum  in  plowing  for  their  crops.  For  the 
next  three  hundred  miles  the  road  lies 
tliroiigh  a  region  of  rich,  black  bottom  lands, 
in  which  are  wheat  fields  and  corn  fields 
covering  thousands  upon  thousands  of  acres, 
all  flat  and  wet  and  black,  scarcely  any  other 
animal  to  be  seen  than  the  universal  and 
inevitable  black  hog,  dirty  and  repulsive  to 
the  last  degree.  Occasional  orchards  show  that 
fruit  may  be  made  to  grow,  but  as  a  rule 
these  lands  are  treeless.  The  farm-houses 
are  generally  one-story  huts ;  there  are  next 
to  no  roads,  and  very  few  fences.  Western 
Kansas,  in  striking  contrast  with  that  por- 
tion just  passed  over,  is  dry  and  well-nigh 
barren.  Thorough  desolation  seems  to  mark 
our  route  for  thirty  hours,  or  almost  up  to 
Pueblo  in  Colorado,  full  five  hundred  miles. 
On  both  sides  the  view  to  the  horizon  is  un- 
broken by  tree,  or  shrub,  or  hillock,  and  the 
sandy  surface  shows  only  occasional  patches 
of   the    short   bulfalo-oTass   to  furnish  anv- 


22  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

thing  like  grazing  for  the  cattle  which  roam 
over  it.  Sage  brush  of  a  few  inches 
growth,  prickly  pear  scarce  showing  above 
the  sand,  and  the  bayonet  grass  in  little 
green  shoots,  are  the  only  evidences  of  veg- 
etable life  observable.  The  great  want  is 
water.  Where  irrigation  is  introduced, 
there  springs  an  oasis.  Occasionally  a  slug- 
gish stream  meanders  across  the  plains,  and 
its  course  is  always  marked  by  the  millions 
of  cattle  grazing  upon  its  banks,  dotting  the 
plain  in  line  of  the  watercourse  as  far  as  the 
eye  can  see.  Underlying  these  plains,  at  a 
depth  of  but  a  few  feet,  is  a  table  of  lime- 
stone, and  innnediately  beneath  that  is 
"  water,  water  everywhere."  By  boring  the 
earth  to  a  depth  of  eight  or  ten  feet, 
anywhere  within  twenty  miles  of  the 
Arkansas  River,  abundant  water  is  found, 
but  there  is  no  pressure  to  bring  it  to  the 
surface. 

Aubrey,  where  the  train  stops  for  water,  is 
a  little  village  of  "  dugouts,"  or  lioles  in  the 


TO  THE  rACiFJC.  23 

earth  strongly  resembling  a  receiving-tomb 
in  a  New  England  country  cemetery.  Prob- 
ably twenty  of  these  burrows  serve  to  con- 
stitute the  places  of  abode  of  the  one  hun- 
dred inhabitants  of  Aubrey.  I  sought  to 
enter  one  of  these  dugouts,  approaching  the 
door,  the  upper  half  of  which  was  glazed, 
and  curtained  with  a  dirty  red  cotton  pocket 
handkerchief.  There  was  neither  latch  nor 
handle,  knob  nor  knocker  visible,  and  the 
place  seemed  to  be  deserted.  Pressing 
against  the  door,  it  failed  to  yield,  but  the 
slight  noise  occasioned  a  commotion  within, 
and  with  a  sudden  movement  the  red  hand- 
kerchief was.  jerked  aside,  revealing  against 
the  glass  the  gaunt  visage  of  a  woman. 
Slie  gazed  for  an  instant,  then  dropped  the 
curtain  and  retreated  with  such  precipitancy, 
shouting  "  Murder  I "  at  the  top  of  her 
voice,  that  I  was  only  too  glad  to  be  with 
equal  precipitancy^  summoned  back  to  the 
train  by  the  ringing  of  the  locomotive  bell, 
without  continuing  my  investigations. 


24  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

TTe  overtook  occasional  emigrant  wagons, 
in  clusters  of  three  or  four,  all  going  west- 
ward. They  look  just  as  they  have  been  a 
thousand  times  pictured.  Flocks  of  sheep, 
without  a  shepherd,  including  apparently 
uncounted  thousands,  nibble  unconcernedly 
wherever  there  is  herbage  to  attract  them. 
Who  can  shear  them,  in  this  vast  plain 
where  there  is  not  one  inhabitant  to  a  square 
mile  I  Thousands  of  timid  little  prairie 
dogs  pop  up  their  heads,  and  as  suddenly 
subside  within  their  burrows  as  the  train 
rushes  through  the  midst  of  their  quiet  colo- 
nies. I  find  that  this  land  belongs  to  Uncle 
Sam.  It  is  quoted  at  one  dollar  and  twenty- 
five  cents  per  acre.  It  seems  strange  that 
anybody  should  want  it  at  any  price. 

We  breakfast,  Wednesday,  at  Coolidge, 
the  westernmost  station  in  Kansas,  and  the 
location  of  the  railroad  company's  repair 
shops.  It  is  a  little  gem  of  a  place,  as  vil- 
lages go  in  this  part  of  the  country.  West 
of    Coolido:e    extend    the    alkaline    plains. 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  25 

wliite  as  snow,  in  tlie  midst  of  which  is  Fort 
Lyon,  wliere  Kit  Carson  was  buried.  His 
monument  is  in  sight  of  ns,  by  the  river, 
surrounded  by  cottonwoods.  Beside  tlie 
goyernment  buildings  liere  are  no  other 
habitations  than  half  a  dozen  adobe  or  mud 
huts  and  a  few  barracks,  dropped  down  by 
the  railroad  station,  amid  the  desolations  of 
a  Colorado  desert.- 

Fifty  miles  farther  on  we  come  in  sight  of 
the  Spanish  Peaks  of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
with  their  snowy  sides  and  summits.  They 
look  to  be  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  away,  and 
members  of  the  party  fall  to  disputing  about 
the  distance  between  them  and  us.  AVe  con- 
sult authority  and  find  it  to  be  seventy  miles 
as  the  crow  flies.  Shortly  we  reach  Pueblo, 
the  third  city  in  Colorado  in  point  of  size 
and  importance.  To  our  great  gratification 
a  halt  of  two  hours  is  ordered  here,  and 
after  a  substantial  dinner  we  are  taken  in 
charge  by  the  Pueblo  Board  of  Trade,  who 
treat   us   to   a  side   excursion   to  the   oreat 


26  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

smelting  works  of  the  Colorado  Coal  and 
Iron  Company,  give  us  all  a  carriage  drive 
about  their  thrifty  and  attractive  city,  and 
otherwise  entertain  and  lionize  us  in  the 
most  approved  style.  Your  correspondent 
is  under  special  obligation  to  his  honor 
Mayor  Shireman  and  to  President  Adams 
of  the  Board  of  Trade,  for  personal  atten- 
tions received  from  each.  I  could  give  you 
a  variety  of  interesting  statistics  concerning 
the  Coal  and  Iron  Company,  and  the  City 
of  Pueblo,  but  must  content  myself  with 
saying  that  this  young  western  city  is  head 
and  shoulders  above  many  an  eastern  town 
that  I  know  of,  in  all  that  goes  to  constitute 
commercial  greatness  or  to  make  one  hope- 
ful for  its  future. 

Pesuming  our  places  in  the  cars,  the  party 
were. soon  on  the  way  to  Manitou,  fifty  miles 
distant,  arriving  at  the  Manitou  House  just 
after  eight  in  the  evening.  The  village  is 
composed  chiefly  of  hotels  and  a  few  private 
residences,  with  stores,  churches,  shops,  and 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  <2!J 

a  fine  bathing  establishment.  Its  permanent 
population  numbers  hut  a  few  hundreds,  yet 
its  hotels  are  said  to  entertain  fifty  thousand 
visitors  yearly.  A  company  of  Boston  capi- 
talists have  purchased  a  large  tract  of  land 
here,  and  are  erecting  or  have  completed 
about  fifty  elegant  cottages  at  various  advan- 
tageous points,  with  bathing-houses,  drink- 
ing-houses  at  the  springs,  and  sundry  other 
accessions  which  will  have  a  certain  ten- 
dency to  make  this  resort  ultimately  the 
Saratoga  of  the  west. 

The  springs  are  about  a  dozen  in  number. 
They  are  principally  soda  and  iron,  and 
their  medicinal  qualities  are  such  as  to  ^ve 
them  wide  repute.  Manitou  is  six  thou- 
sand three  hundred  and  fifty-seven  feet 
above  the  sea.  The  village  is  immediately 
surrounded  by  mountains,  a  dozen  promi- 
nent peaks  being  in  view  from  my  window 
as  I  write — the  highest  being  Pike's  Peak,, 
fourteen  thousand  three  hundred  and  tliirty- 
six  feet  above  the  sea.      Tliese  mountains 


28  FROM  NEW   ENGLAND 

are  nearly  all  covered  with  snow,  and  the 
view  is  one  of  unsurpassed  grandeur  and 
sublimity.  Pike's  Peak  looms  up  amid  the 
<;loiidslike  a  monument  of  alabaster,  reflect- 
ing the  sun's  ra^^s  and  producing  an  impres- 
sion of  sul)lime  beauty  upon  the  beholder 
which  is  absolutely  impossible  of  adequate 
■description. 

Nearly  every  member  of  our  party  joined 
this  morning  in  an  excursion  by  carriages 
to  some  of  the  chief  places  of  interest  in 
this  immediate  vicinity,  including  the  Gar- 
den of  the  Gods,  Glen  Eyrie,  Mushroom 
Park,  the  Rainbow  Falls,  the  Ute  Iron 
Spftngs,  Williams  Canon,  and  the  Cave  of 
the  Winds.  The  Garden  of  the  Gods  is 
considered  the  most  wonderful  of  all,  al- 
though I  found  the  surroundings  of  Rain- 
bow Falls  and  Williams  Canon  scarcely  less 
w^onderful  or  impressive.  The  mountains 
and  canons  and  gorges  of  Manitou  I  can 
only  think  of  in  comparison  or  contrast  with 
our  own  White  Mountain  scenery,  which 


TO   rilE  PACIFIC.  29 

lattei'  is,  I  must  confess,  so  far  eclipsed  by 
what  I  liave  seen  here,  as  to  leave  of  them 
for  nie  only  a  sad  memory.  The  other  won- 
ders of  sandstone  turrets  and  domes  and 
fantastic  rock-forms  rising  abruptly  four  or 
five  hundred  feet,  and  scattered  like  senti- 
nels about  the  plains  at  the  feet  of  these 
mountains,  and  within  tliese  broad  canons, 
are  comparable  to  n<jthing  I  have  heretofore 
seen,  and  they  exceed  in  their  grotesqueness 
and  sublimity  the  ideal  which  my  imagina- 
tion had  constructed.  We  start  to-morrow 
morning  for  a  two  days'  trip  to  Denver,  and 
among  the  gold  mines  of  Gilpin  County  ; 
but  I  am  in  love  with  Manitou,  and  happy  in 
the  thought  that  two  whole  days  of  next 
week  will  be  allowed  us  for  a  further  explora- 
tion of  the  wonderful  and  beautiful  objects 
and  localities  with  which  this  region  abounds. 
I  have  just  spoken  of  the  White  Mountains. 
My  recollection  is  that  the  summit  of  Blount 
Washington  is  scarce  six  thousand  feet  high. 
The  lowest  spot  in  this  village  is  over  six 


30  FROM  XEW  ENGLAND 

thousand  feet,  and  Pike's  Peak  towers  in 
front  of  us  eight  thousand  two  hundred  and 
twelve  feet  higlier  still !  There  is  a  govern- 
ment signal  station  at  the  summit  of  Pike's 
Peak.  Yesterday  a  signal  of  distress  was 
displayed  at  the  station,  and  two  parties 
have  set  out  to  attempt  to  reach  and  relieve 
the  occupant.  The  snow  between  "  timber 
line  "  and  the  summit  is  from  thirty  to  fifty 
feet  deep,  yet  with  the  aid  of  their  snow- 
shoes  and  other  appliances  the  rescuers 
expect  to  be  able  to  reach  the  station  within 
twenty-four  hours  of  the  start.  I  shall 
probably  write  you  next  from  Santa  F^. 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  31 


III. 

Ix  AND  About  Denver — Silver  Mining  and 
Smelting — Up  Clear  Creek  Gulch — Central 
City  and  its  Mines — Elevated  Railroading — 
Colorado  Sjv^ings. 

Colorado  Springs,  Col.,  May  4. 
Friday  and  Saturday,  May  second  and 
third,  were  assigned  for  a  visit  to  Denver 
and  the  mining  regions  northwest  up  Clear 
Creek  fifty  miles  into  the  heart  of  the 
Rockies  of  Jeiferson  and  Gilpin  Counties. 
On  the  morning  of  Friday  we  left  Manitou, 
bright  and  early,  and  before  noon  had  cov- 
ered the  eighty-odd  miles  intervening  be- 
tween our  starting  point  and  the  Queen 
City.  We  approached  Denver  l)y  the  way 
of  Jewel  Park,  bisecting  the  familiar  "  Cir- 
cle  Road "  in    which    vour  late   Governor 


32  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

Jewell  was  once  financially  interested.  The 
city  is  spread  out  over  the  plains  at  the  foot 
of  the  everlasting  hills,  both  Pike's  Peak,  at 
the  south,  and  Long's  Peak,  at  the  north, 
being  within  easy  view.  The  people  of 
Denver  have  a  right  to  be,  as  they  are, 
very  proud  of  their  city.  It  is  said  to  con- 
tain sixty  thousand  inhabitants.  Its  streets 
are  broad,  and,  though  not  paved,  do  not 
appear  to  be  subject  to  the  annoyance  of 
mud  or  excessive  roughness.  Broadway  ex- 
tends thirteen  miles,  from  north  to  south, 
within  the  city  limits,  straight  and  level.  It 
is  illuminated  by  night  by  electric  lights 
from  several  towers  in  different  portions  of 
the  city,  these  towers  being  two  hundred  feet 
high,  and  each  having  a  cluster  of  twelve 
burners.  Even  in  the  business  portions  of 
the  city,  and  particularly  on  those  streets 
wliere  the  homes  of  the  people  are  situated, 
there  is  an  air  and  appearance  of  cleanliness 
and  sweetness,  as  well  as  of  elegance  and 
luxurv,  which  is  in  strikinof  contrast  with 


ro    THE   PACIFIC.  33 

most  cities  of  its  magnitude,  East  or  West. 
Outside  the  very  heart  of  the  city,  the 
streets  are  all  lined  with  cottonwoods  and 
maples,  and  the  lawns  and  gardens  abound 
Avith  fruit  trees,  whose  growth  is  made  possi- 
ble only  by  tlie  system  of  irrigation  which 
brings  the  waters  of  the  Platte  into  tlie  city 
by  canals  and  distributes  them  through 
every  street.  Little  rivulets  thus  fill  the 
gutters,  cooling  the  atmosphere,  penetrating 
the  thirsty  earth,  and  giving  vigor  to  every 
variety  of  vegetation  within  reach  of  its 
moisture.  Numerous  artesian  wells  supply 
pure  and  healthful  water  for  domestic  pur- 
poses. 

The  architecture  of  Denver  is  its  most 
impressive  characteristic.  This  feature  shows 
itself  as  the  visitor  alights  from  the  railroad 
train  and  finds  confronting  him  the  stately 
"Union  Depot,"  built  of  pink  and  white 
sandstone,  a  marvel  of  elegance  and  com- 
pleteness, one  of  the  very  largest  and  finest 
railroad  stations  in   America.     Other  con- 

3 


34  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

spicuous  edifices  are  the  Tabor  Opera  House, 
said  to  be  tlie  finest  opera  house  in  the 
country,  the  Windsor  and  St.  James  Hotels 
(at  the  latter  of  which  the  Raymond  Excur- 
sion Party  were  quartered),  the  Court 
House  and  City  Hall,  Tabor  Block,  La  Yeta 
Palace,  the  Exposition  Building,  Colorado 
IN'ational  Bank  Block,  St.  John's  Cathedral, 
etc.  On  Capitol  Hill  are  a  large  number  of 
elegant  private  residences.  There  are  said 
to  be  over  a  hundred  of  these  which  cost 
more  than  eighty  thousand  dollars  each. 
The  prevailing  building  material  is  brick, 
although  the  most  expensive  structures  are 
of  the  beautiful  ^^ink  and  salmon  tinted 
sandstone,  a  material  which  produces  the 
very  choicest  effects  in  the  hands  of  a  tasty 
and  skillful  architect.  Here  are  no  less 
than  fifty-four  churches  and  thirty-three  in- 
stitutions of  learning,  which  fairly  indicates 
the  character  and  intellectual  inclinations  of 
the  people.  The  city  and  its  suburbs  are 
brought  into  proximity  by  numerous  lines 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  35 

of  street  cars  and  narrow-gauge  railroads ; 
the  telephone  is  here ;  so  is  the  district 
messeno;er  service.  There  are  four  daily 
newspapers,  and  each  appears  to  be  well 
conducted  and  liberally  sustained.  Indeed, 
the  city  has  all  modern  improyements  and 
advantages  possessed  by  any  other  city  on 
the  continent.  Almost  the  sole  business  of 
its  inhabitants  is  mining.  Strangers  have 
come  here  from  every  portion  of  the  coun- 
try, have  found  fortunes  in  tlie  mountains 
or  adjoining  plains,  have  spent  their  money 
here,  and  the  result  is — simply  Denver;  and 
there  is  no  other  Denver  in  the  world. 

The  Connecticut  members  of  the  party 
spent  an  hour  at  the  extensive  works  of  the 
Boston  and  Colorado  Smelting  Company, 
owned  by  Boston  capital  and  officered, 
mainly,  by  Xew  England  men.  AVe  had 
the  satisfaction  of  observing  every  operation 
required  in  reducing  rough  quartz  to  reiined 
gold  and  silver,  and  of  bringing  away  some 
handsome  specimens  of  the  hnislied  product 


36  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

of  the  establishment.  Among  the  inter- 
esting objects  seen  in  the  reiining-room 
were  twentj-one  pure  silver  bricks,  just 
"  poured,"  worth  two  thousand  three  hun- 
dred dollars  each;  and  a  great  tank  in 
which  reposed  one  hundred  and  fifty  thous- 
and dollars  worth  of  "  sponge  silver  "  await- 
ing the  roaster.  The  annual  product  of 
these  smeltino;  works  is  about  four  million 
dollars  of  silver,  two  million  dollars  of  gold, 
and  one  million  dollars  of  copper. 

Having  seen,  in  Denver,  something  of 
what  wealth  in  gold  and  silver  may  accom- 
plish, we  were  ready,  Saturday  morning, 
for  a  trip  among  some  of  the  hiding-places 
of  the  precious  metals  in  their  crude  and 
original  form.  Our  destination  was  Black 
Hawk  and  Central  City,  forty  miles  up 
the  "Wonder  Railroad,"  as  this  narrow 
gauge  branch  of  the  Colorado  Central  Hail- 
way  is  very  appropriately  styled.  Sixteen 
miles  away  we  reach  Golden,  which  lies  at 
the  base  of  the  Rockv  Mountain  foot-hills. 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  37 

At  Golden  we  enter  Clear  Creek  Giilcli, 
and  begin  the  twenty-six  mile  climb  wliicli 
will  terminate  at  Central  City,  three  thous- 
and feet  nearer  heaven.  Clear  Creek,  as  it 
emerges  from  the  gulch  or  gorge  which 
bears  its  name,  is  a  rushing,  roaring  stream, 
of  about  the  volume  of  your  Park  Eiver 
before  the  spring  freshet  has  fairly  subsided. 
It  may  have  been  "  clear"  when  first  named, 
but  the  constant  disturbance  of  the  soil  by 
miners  along  its  bed,  and  the  discharges  of 
tons  and  tons  of  crushed  sandstone  and 
limestone  quartz  into  it  daily,  have  brought 
the  stream  to  about  the  consistency  and 
color  of  a  regulation  dose  of  calomel  and 
jalap.  In  the  shallow  portions  of  this 
stream,  all  the  wa\'  up  to  Black  Hawk,  may 
be  seen  hundreds  of  Chinamen,  wearing 
high  rubber  boots,  washing  for  gold.  Some 
of  them  erect  long,  narrow  flumes,  or 
sluices,  through  which  little  streams  of 
water  are  made  to  run  less  rapidly  than  in 
the  river-bed.     Minute  particles  of  gold  and 


38  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

silver  in  the  water  are  thus  deposited  on 
the  bottom  of  the  sluice,  and  once  a  week, 
or  oftener,  the  little  stream  is  shut  off,  and 
the  bottom  of  the  sluice  is  washed  for  the 
precious  metals.  The  natives  tell  us  that 
the  soil  up  and  down  the  bed  of  this  creek 
has  been  handled  over  and  over  again  with- 
in the  last  thirty  years,  but  it  still  yields 
something.  Even  after  so  many  washings, 
the  Chinamen  find  from  two  to  five 
dollars  a  day.  The  race  are  natural 
scavengers,  and  better  satisfied  to  wade 
the  streams  for  "tailings"  than  to  labor  for 
wages  in  the  mines  above.  Occasionally 
we  pass  men  working  with  pick  or  spade  in 
the  mountain  side,  digging  little  holes  here 
and  there,  wherever  earth  shows  itself 
among  the  rocks.  These  are  surface  min- 
ers, and  their  tedious  labor  is  occasionally 
rewarded  by  a  "find."  We  were  shown  a 
pint  or  more  of  gold  nuggets  at  one  of  the 
banks  in  Central  City,  varying  in  size  from 
a  buckshot  to  an  old-fashioned  copper  cent. 


TO    THE   FACItlf.  39 

wliicli  had  been  found  by  surface  miners 
along  this  gulch.  The  banks  buy  the  nug- 
gets and  the  free  gold.  The  nuggets  found 
in  Clear  Creek  Gulch,  as  I  presume  else- 
where, are  of  all  conceivable  shapes.  I 
saw  none  larger  than  thirty-two  penny- 
weights, and  most  of  them  were  less  than 
one-eighth  that  size. 

The  trip  up  the  gulch  was  something  to 
be  remembered.  The  railway  follows  the 
stream,  of  course,  at  heights  varying  from  ten 
to  hfty  feet  above  its  bed.  On  either  hand 
the  rocky  mountain-sides  rise  more  or  less 
abruptly  to  a  height  of  eight  to  twelve  hun- 
dred feet,  and  the  curves  are  such  as  would 
render  progress  impossible  on  any  other  than 
a  narrow  gauge.  In  places  the  huge  rocks 
actually  overhang  us  a  thousand  feet  above; 
in  others  we  leap  a  chasm  with  only  a  slight 
trestle  between  us  and  eternity.  The  trip  is 
made  in  observation  cars.  Considering  the 
sharp  curves,  and  the  heavy  grades,  and  the 
constantlv  tlireateniuii:  features  of  the  I'oad 


40  FROM  XEW  ENGLAND 

bed,  the  speed  at  which  the  train  runs  is 
absolutely  terrific.  For  the  first  five  miles  I 
was  in  momentary  expectation  that  my  life 
insurance  policies  were  about  to  become 
claims ;  but  somehow  I  managed  to  get 
accustomed  to  the  apparent  danger,  and 
when,  between  Black  Hawk  and  Central, 
the  road  ascends  the  last  elevation  in  ziz- 
zag,  I  looked  with  serenity  over  the  side  of 
the  open  car  to  the  bottom  of  the  gulch  six 
hundred  feet  below.  These  twenty-four 
miles,  grooved  in  the  sturdy  foot-hills,  illus- 
trate well  American  railway  enterprise. 
Fourteen  trains  are  run  daily  over  the  single 
track,  and  notwithstanding  the  seeming 
recklessness  of  n:ianagement,  there  has  never 
been  a  serious  accident  during  the  history  of 
the  road.  The  present  terminus  of  this 
branch  is  at  Central  City.  Here  our  party 
dined  at  the  Teller  House,  erected  by  and 
named  in  honor  of  Secretary  of  Interior 
Teller,  who  is  a  citizen  of  this  place.  His 
unostentatious  residence  is  pointed  out  to  the 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  41 

visitor.  The  villao-es  of  Black  Hawk  and 
Central  City  extend  about  a  mile  np  the 
gulch,  there  being  but  a  single  street  run- 
ninor  lono^itudinallv,  and  a  few  short  and  un- 
important  ones  crossing.  The  twelve  or 
fifteen  hundred  inhabitants  are  miners,  rep- 
resenting the  sole  industry  of  "  the  camp," 
as  the  natives  designate  the  neighborhood. 
Central  City  proper  has  the  post-office,  the 
stores,  the  three  banks,  the  newspaper,  and 
the  "  emporium  of  fashion,"  where  a  lacka- 
daisical milliner  once  a  year  fixes  up  the  few 
bonnets  that  are  worn  or  needed  in  this 
region  of  primitive  tastes  and  accomplish- 
ments. 

As  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  the  surface  is 
studded  thick  with  '*  shafts  "  of  the  numer- 
ous mines  with  which  these  hill-sides  are 
honeycombed.  Tlie  lowest  level  worked  is 
sixteen  hundred  teet.  The  quartz  is  brought 
to  the  surface  and  sold  to  the  smelters,  who 
are  able  to  tell  at  a  glance  what  any  lot 
ofiered    will    vield.       One    of    these    mines 


42  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

which  we  visited  was  bought  April  first  by 
its  present  owners,  for  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  During  April  they  took  out  twenty- 
nine  thousand  dolLars.  Fortunes  are  being 
made  here,  and  changing  hands,  every 
month.  The  homes  of  the  practical  miners 
are  unattractive,  and  there  is  little  about  the 
village  to  denote  an  advanced  stage  of  civil- 
ization. Miniug  is  not  intellectually  eleva- 
ting in  its  tendencies,  any  more  than  dig- 
ging wells  or  laying  stone  wall.  Our  party 
did  considerable  tramping,  selected  a  few  of 
the  most  brilliant  specimens,  tried  to  talk 
wisely  to  the  natives,  and  were  rather  glad 
when  the  conductor  announced  that  our 
train  was  ready.  We  made  Denver  at  six 
o'clock,  found  an  excellent  supper  at  the  sta- 
tion which  detained  us  an  hour,  and  at  half- 
past  ten  were  again  in  Manitou. 

To-day,  Sunday,  our  Connecticut  party 
visited  this  place  from  which  I  date.  Colo- 
rado Springs  has  a  good  assortment  of 
churches.     AYe  came  up  here  with  the  inten- 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  43 

tion  of  worshiping  at  the  Congregational 
establishment,  but  finding  it  late  for  service 
when  we  arrived,  abandoned  the  intention. 
Everybody  has  heard  of  Colorado  Springs, 
but  not  everybody  knows  there  isn't  a  spring 
in  the  place ;  they  are  all  at  Manitou.  But 
it  is  a  very  pretty  and  attractive  village, 
though  it  has  no  springs.  It  has  six  thou- 
sand inhabitants,  and  its  business  is  chiefly 
in  cattle.  It  has  a  Catholic  and  an  orthodox 
college,  several  stores,  hotels,  post-office,  and 
a  daily  newspaper.  Every  western  village 
has  a  daily  newspaper.  I  don't  know  why 
some  of  them  are  printed,  except  it  may  be 
to  keep  up  the  price  of  white  paper.  Colorado 
Springs  has  several  of  those  beautiful  pink 
and  salmon  colored  stone  buildings  which 
attracted  my  admiration  at  Denver.  They 
tell  me  here  the  stone  is  not  limestone  or 
sandstone,  but  lava.  I  don't  care  by  what 
name  it  is  called  ;  it  is  tlie  finest  building 
material  in  the  world,  witli  or  without  a 
name. 


44  FROM  NEW  EXGLAND 

We  shall  spend  Monday  in  Manitou,  and 
leave  Tuesday  morning  for  a  tliree  days'  trip 
among  the  mountains,  taking  in  Marshall 
Pass,  Leadville,  and  the  La  Yeta  Pass, 
ex]3ecting  to  arrive  at  El  Moro  on  Thursday, 
May  eighth. 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  45 


lY. 

Up  Among  and  Over  the  Rockies — Good 
Bye  to  Maniiou — Royal  George  and  Mar- 
shall Pass — The  Snow  Sheds — A  Xight  at 
Sargent — Leadvdle  on  Both  Sides —  Veta 
Pass — Las  Vegas  Hoi  Springs — A  Tribute 
to  Rayrnond. 

In  Transit,  Xear  Santa  Fe,  X.  ^L,  May  9. 

Four  days  and  tliree  nights  in  a  narrow- 
gauge  sleeping-car  will  occasionally  test  the 
good  nature  of  as  suave  an  individual  as 
your  humble  servant.  Our  family  of  twenty 
in  this  particular  car  is  composed  of  gentle- 
men and  ladies  in  about  equal  numbers, 
with  relations  of  kinship  subsisting  between 
but  a  portion  of  them.  They  all  want  to 
get  up  and  dress  at  about  the  same  moment 
in  the  morning ;  the  dressing-room  accorn- 


46  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

modations  are  adapted  for  but  a  single  occu- 
pant at  a  time ;  and  the  average  passenger 
feels  obliged  to  wriggle  into  some  sort  of 
wearing  apparel  while  yet  in  his  berth,  and 
before  he  appears  even  in  the  passage-way. 
That  disrobing  or  enrobing,  or  observing  the 
various  conventionalities  of  polite  society  in 
these  little  toy  houses  on  wheels,  is  with  us 
or  anybody  a  happy  success,  must  be  due  to 
great  good  nature  and  forbearance  on  the 
part  of  all  concerned.  But  I  am  glad  to 
have  had  the  experience,  for  while  it  has 
furnished  additional  evidence  that  "  variety 
is  the  spice  of  life,"  it  has  also  exhibited 
features  in  the  funny  side  of  raih'oading 
which  none  of  us  would  now  wish  to  have 
obHterated.  Henceforward,  from  Santa  Fe 
to  the  Pacific  Coast,  we  travel  on  the  broad- 
gauge  Pullmans  in  which  we  left  Boston. 

My  last  letter  was  dated  from  Manitou,  as 
our  party  was  about  leaving  for  its  four 
days'  excursion  among  the  chief  scenic  won- 
ders   of    the    Colorado    Rockies.      Before 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  47 

leaving  Manitou  for  good  I  cannot  repress 
an  allusion  to  the  last  half  day  spent  there 
in  visiting  Williams  Canon  and  its  ultimate 
attraction,  the  famous  Cave  of  the  Winds. 
The  canon  itself  is  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able among  the  stupendous  gorges  of  Colo- 
rado. The  cavern  is  located  three-quarters 
of  a  mile  up  this  gorge,  and  its  entrance  is 
at  the  foot  of  a  In'oad  fissure  in  the  cliff,  per- 
haps three  hundred  feet  above  the  trail. 
Registering  our  names,  and  paying  each  his 
admission  fee  of  one  dollar,  the  guide 
assisted  us  in  donnino^  loose  outside  orar- 
ments,  handed  us  lighted  candles,  and,  un- 
der his  lead,  we  proceeded  up-stairs,  down- 
stairs, through  broad  halls  and  wide  cham- 
bers, and  tortuous  passages,  upward  of  a 
mile  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  Stalac- 
tites and  stalagmites,  in  great  profusion  and 
beauty,  met  our  admiring  gaze  in  ever}^ 
direction.  We  stopped  here  and  there  to 
rest,  and  linger  delightedly  in  the  ''  bridal 
chamber,"  which  is  the  acme  of  all  and  the 


48  FROM  NEW   EXGLAXD 

lioly  of  holies  of  tins  temple  not  made  with 
hands.  The  guide  cautions  us  to  touch  not, 
with  appropriating  hands,  one  of  the  least 
of  the  ten  thousand  stalactites  which  de- 
pend from  the  ceilings,  or  of  the  glistening 
and  delicate  fretwork  which,  in  fantastic 
forms,  adorns  the  walls  of  this  brilliant 
cliamber.  When,  however,  we  complete 
our  explorations,  and  have  returned  to  the 
welcome  sunlight  and  purer  atmosphere  of 
the  outside  world,  it  astonishes  us  to  find 
for  how  slight  a  recompense  in  coin  of  the 
realm  the  sordid  cave-owner  is  induced  to 
part  with  sundry  specimens  of  the  very 
things  we  had  coveted  while  we  roamed 
among  them  under  the  censorship  of  his  hire- 
ling. We  had  not  given  the  Williams  Canon 
and  its  cave  much  thouo-ht  while  selectino; 
from  among  the  attractions  of  Manitou's 
suburbs  the  objective  points  for  our  rides  and 
tramps,  and  the  brief  visit  here  alluded  to  was 
in  the  best  sense  accidental.  But  let  me  say, 
in  passing,  that  the  tourist  who  bids  good- 


TO  Tin-:  p.irjFJC.  49 

bye  to  Maiiiton,  liaving  failed  to  take  in  the 
Cave  of  the  Winds,  makes  a  mistake  forever 
to  be  regretted. 

Tuesday  morning  we  deposited  ourselves 
in  three  of  the  cosiest  of  the  cosy  little 
sleepers  of  the  Denver  6z  Kio  Grande  Eail- 
wav — narrow  o-antre — with  an  observation 
car  attached,  and  started  for  El  Moro,  via 
the  Royal  Gorge,  Marshall  Pass,  Leadville, 
and  La  Yeta.  Tliat  we  might  be  unencum- 
bered to  the  last  degree,  our  trunks  were 
forwarded,  by  express,  direct  to  Santa  Fe ; 
the  wisdom  of  which  arrangement  became 
increasingly  apparent  as  we  observed  the 
small  opportunity  which  these  cars  aiforded 
for  utilizing  such  luxuries  as  fresh  linen  or 
a  change  of  head-gear.  [I  speak  of  capital 
adornment  because  that  in  my  anxiety  to 
appear  well  before  the  natives  of  Green 
Horn,  Puker's  Pass,  and  other  metropole 
where  our  train  might  stop  for  refreshments, 
I  took  along  my  plug  hat,  one  of  Watrous^s 
best,  and  new  a  day  or  two  before  leaving 
4 


50  FROM  NEW  EX  GLAND 

Hartford.  The  very  first  night  our  admir- 
able porter  took  pains  to  hang  my  tile  on  a 
hat-hook  in  such  position  that  when  he  un- 
shipped the  upper  bunk  nearest  it,  the  hat 
received  an  irreparable  injury.  I  left  it 
hanging  upon  a  section  post  about  three 
miles  west  of  Salida,  having  taking  the  pre- 
caution to  turn  it  inside  out  so  that  the 
maker's  label  might  serve  Watrous  as  an 
advertisement.  As  a  consequence  of  this 
untimely  episode  I  appear  before  the  natives 
on  dress  parade  in  fatigue  uniform,  as  plug 
hats  are  not  to  be  had  this  side  of  San 
Francisco.  The  incident  conveys  a  moral : 
Do  not  wear  a  stovepipe  hat  when  you  go 
West.] 

The  "  Grand  Canon  of  the  Arkansas,"  of 
which  the  supreme  portion  is  known  as 
Royal  Gorge,  extends  ten  miles  above  Canon 
City.  Its  walls  are  high  and  precipitous, 
composed  mainlj^  of  solid  rock.  Its  princi- 
pal features  are  similar  to  those  of  Williams 
Canon,  but  infinitely  more  grand  and  impos- 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  ^\ 

ing,  and  it  has  the  added  charm  of  a  turbu- 
lent stream — the  Arkansas  River — tearing 
and  tumbling  among  the  boulders  at  the 
bottom  of  the  gorge.  The  railroad,  as  at 
Clear  Creek,  follows  the  stream  about  fifty 
feet  above  its  bed.  At  Royal  Gorge,  a 
bridge  has  actually  been  builded  out  from  a 
projecting  rock,  supported  by  iron  rafters  in 
the  form  of  an  inverted  \  above  it.  The 
train  is  brought  to  a  halt  on  this  bridge,  the 
party  leave  the  cars  and  group  themselves 
upon  the  causeway,  where  several  stereo- 
scopic views  are  taken,  with  the  ledges  in 
the  background  lifting  their  granite  walls 
more  than  two  thousand  feet  above.  All 
through  this  canon  there  are  crevasses  or 
rifts  in  the  rocky  sides,  tlirough  which  we 
catch  bewitching  glim])ses  of  the  Sange  de 
Christo  range  of  the  Rockies,  with  Mount 
Ouray  towering  white  and  grand  and  l)eau- 
tiful,  fourteen  tliousand  and  twenty-three 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 

An  easy  run  of  an  hour  and  a  half  brings 


52  FROM  NEW   ENGLAND 

US  to  Salida,  a  ]3lace  of  some  importance^ 
and  just  now  conspicuous  on  account  of  a 
recent  discovery  of  gold  and  silver  bearing 
leads  in  the  hills  one  to  three  miles  from  the 
railroad  station.  The  Salida  mine  is  the 
most  promising,  specimens  being  shown  us 
of  ore  from  it  which  assayed  five  hundred 
and  twenty  dollars  to  the  ton.  The  town 
was  alive  with  strangers,  evidently  attracted 
thither  by  the  new  find.  Salida  has  a  pop- 
ulation of  about  five  thousand.  All  branches 
of  trade  seem  to  fiourish  there — particularly 
the  gin  Ijusiness,  it  requiring  fifty-three 
liquor  shops  and  drug  stores  to  supply  the 
demand.  With  a  few  honorable  exceptions 
the  people  appear  to  be  of  a  vagabond  class, 
living  upon  one  another,  and  Avaiting  for 
new  contributions  from  outside  to  enable 
them  to  maintain  the  dignity  and  profit  of 
their  calling.  And  yet  these  wretches  have 
the  assurance  to  insist  that  there  is  nothing 
left  of  Xew  England  but  a  few  decrepit  old 
men  and  women,  and  to  express  their  sym- 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  53 

pathy  for  our  party  as  forlorn  representa- 
tives of  a  section  of  country  whose  great- 
ness has  entirely  departed  I  The  best  thing 
observed  in  Salida  was  the  dinner  served  for 
us  at  tlie  station  dining-rooms. 

At  three  forty-iive  p.  m.  we  commenced 
the  ascent  of  the  spurs  of  Mount  Ouray,  on 
our  way  to  Marshall  Pass.  This  Pass  is  ten 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  twenty-five 
feet  above  the  sea,  and  constitutes  the  divid- 
ing line  between  the  Eastern  and  Pacific 
slopes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  is 
reached  by  a  complex  system  of  curves,  the 
railroad  doubling  on  itself  no  less  than  six 
times  in  making  the  ascent.  As  we  ad- 
vance up  the  mountain  side  the  situation  be- 
comes grand  and  impressive  beyond  descrip- 
tion. Hundreds  of  snow-covered  peaks  all 
about  us  come  into  clearer  view  above  and 
below  the  fleecy  clouds  which  toy  and 
tremble  and  dissolve  among  the  distant 
summits.  As  the  train  slowly  creeps  up  the 
incline,  new  and  deeper  abysses  constantly 


54  FROM  i\#:Tr  England 

appal  us  on  the  one  hand,  while  on  the 
other  the  majestic  heights  scarcely  diminish. 
We  behold  and  wonder,  and  stand  awed  as 
if  in  the  immediate  presence  of  Omnipo- 
tence. We  seem  to  be  leaving  things 
earthy,  and  advancing  so  surely  toward  the 
heavenly,  that  it  is  scarcely  less  than  a  dis- 
appointment when  the  train  plunges  into  a 
cavernous  snow-shed  and  the  illusion  is  dis- 
pelled. But  onward  and  upward  the  pon- 
derous sixty-ton  locomotive  drags  us,  until, 
almost  within  hailing  distance  of  the  sum- 
mit of  Ouray,  we  come  to  a  halt  on  the 
crest  of  the  divide.  This  is  Marshall  Pass, 
almost  eleven  thousand  feet  above  the  sea, 
with  perhaps  a  single  exception  the  lofti- 
est railway  point  in  the  world.  The  train 
waits  here  in  the  darkness  a  few  minutes 
while  the  excursionists  dismount  and  at- 
tempt to  reconnoitre.  I  say  "  in  tlie  dark- 
ness," for  you  must  bear  in  mind  that  at  this 
point  and  all  about  ns  the  snow  is  from  ten  to 
fifty  feet  deep  ;  and  Marsliall  Pass  Station  is 


rO   THE  PACIFIC.  55 

a  snow-shed  nearly  or  quite  a  mile  in  length. 
On  one  side  the  shed  abuts  against  the 
mountain  ;  in  the  opposite  side  are  occasion- 
al windows,  wliich  admit  a  few  rays  of  light 
at  intervals,  and  allow^  us  another  glance  at 
the  depths  below  or  heights  above  and  about 
us.  We  have  obeyed  the  admonition  of 
our  conductor  before  reaching  this  great 
elevation,  and  stand  in  one  another's  pres- 
ence in  such  mutflings  and  wrappings  as 
each  can  command,  and  are  not  anxious  to 
remain  lono^  outside  the  warm  cars.  A  few 
of  us  step  into  tlie  little  telegraph  office 
and  interview  the  operator,  who  is  a  lady. 
She  declines  to  accept  the  > commiserations 
freely  extended,  and  evidently  considers  her 
lot  a  happy  one.  She  is  forty  and  unmar- 
ried— which  explains  the  situation.  The 
railroad  goes  on  over  the  Pass  and  down  the 
west  side  of  the  mountain,  this  being  the 
main  line  of  connection  with  the  Southern 
Pacific.  AVe  followed  it  as  far  as  Sargent, 
where  we  took  supper  and  lodgings.     It  is. 


56  FROM  NE  W  EXGLAXD 

perhaps,  eDougli  to  record  of  this  enterpris- 
inor  villao-e,  that  none  of  its  inhabitants 
went  gunning  among  our  party  during  tlie 
night,  which  good  fortune  on  our  part  was 
at  the  time  considered  providential.  It 
afterward  transpired  that  an  escaping  horse- 
thief  received  their  individual  attention. 
We  left  Sargent  Wednesday  morning,  re- 
tracing our  way  over  the  Pass  to  Salida, 
from  which  latter  point  we  proceeded 
directly  to  Leadville,  reaching  that  famous 
locality  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 
The  sixty  miles  between  Salida  and  Lead- 
ville afford  little  of  note.  Occasional  vil- 
lages of  a  few  hundred  inhabitants  put  in 
an  appearance,  but  they  are  all  essentially 
alike;  a  few  little  one-story,  dingy-yellow 
or  wood-colored  buildings,  with  now  and 
then  a  more  pretentious  one ;  a  few  men 
loitering  about  in  beggarly  costume,  with 
slouch  hats,  and  pants  stuffed  in  their  boot- 
legs ;  a  few  burros  meekly  bearing  their 
burdens  ;    a  few  charcoal   pits  ;  and   a  few 


TO    THE  PACIFIC.  57 

millions  of  acres  of  barren  land  surround- 
ing ;  this  will  answer  for  a  description  of 
any  or  all  of  them.  There  is  the  magnifi- 
cent mountain  scenery  all  the  time,  and 
the  delighful  climate ;  the  rest  is  poor 
enough. 

But  there  is  nothing  monotonous  or  simi- 
lar about  Leadville.  Leadville  is  unique. 
Let  us  be  thankful  for  it.  Perhaps  I 
should  remind  you  of  its  early  history. 
The  locality  was  first  famous  as  "California 
Gulch,''  where,  from  1S59  to  1864,  five  mil- 
lion dollars  of  gold  was  washed  out.  The 
camp  was  afterward  nearly  abandoned,  till 
during  1876  the  discovery  of  carl)onates 
was  made,  which  led  to  a  sudden  infiux  of 
population.  In  February,  1878,  the  town 
of  Leadville  was  organized,  and  two  years 
later  the  city  of  the  same  name  was  incor- 
porated with  a  population  of  fifteen  thous- 
and one  hundred  and  eighty -five,  of  whom 
only  three  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
fortv-nine   were  females.      This    o-reat   car- 


58  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

bonate  camp  of  Colorado  is  said  to  be  the 
richest  mining  district  in  the  world.  The 
product  of  bullion  has  increased  from  year 
to  year,  nntil  in  1882  it  exceeded  eighteen 
million  dollars.  For  a  reason  which  I  think 
will  be  apparent  to  a  critical  observer  of 
its  brief  history,  the  population  has  grad- 
ually fallen  off,  until  at  present  it  is  but 
about  twelve  thousand  ;  and  I  suppose  that 
the  proportion  of  females  is  even  smaller 
than  when  the  census  of  1880  was  taken. 
The  principal  business  institutions  are  six 
banks,  fifteen  smelting  and  reduction  works, 
four  foundries  and  machine  shops,  water 
works,  gas  works,  lumber  yards,  stores,  etc. 
There  are  three  daily  papers,  schools, 
churches,  hotels,  etc.  The  number  of  mines 
within  a  radius  of  three  miles  of  the  city, 
is  said  to  be  upwards  of  two  hundred,  in 
many  of  which  there  are  two  and  three  re- 
lays of  hands,  so  that  work  is  kept  up 
twenty-four  hours  of  every  day  in  the  year. 
Leadville  is   ten   thousand   feet  above  the 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  59 

level  of  the  sea,  and  the  climate  is  abso- 
lutely un  approach  able  for  salubrity  and 
healthfulness.  These  are  statistics  which 
the  historian  naturally  seeks,  and  such  as 
you  might  expect  me  to  collect  and  record 
during  a  brief  tarry  in  the  city. 

Yon  will  fail  of  receiving  a  correct  impres- 
sion of  Leadville,  however,  if  I  fail  to  make 
some  further  statements.  And  first  in  re- 
spect to  gambling,  which  in  its  various  forms 
is  practiced  there  openly  and  by  sanction  of 
law.  There  are  in  this  city  of  twelve  thousand 
inhabitants  upwards  of  thirty  public  gam- 
bling houses,  which  pay  a  revenue  to  the  city 
of  about  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  per 
year.  Every  hotel  has  one,  and  some  as 
many  as  six  tables.  The  Board  of  Tradq, 
which  is  a  flourishing  institution  and  owns 
its  three-story  brick  block  on  the  principal 
street  of  tlie  city,  is  but  a  huge  gaming 
house  with  all  the  modern  appointments 
and  conveniences.  Its  manager  was  for- 
merly a   resident  of  y<>ur  city.     I  spent  an 


(30  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

hour  at  his  office  in  very  agreeable  conver- 
sation relative  to  Hartford  men  and  affairs. 
I  visited  one  of  the  high-toned  faro-banks 
at  the  corner  of  West  Chestnut  street,  the 
proprietor  of  which  is  an  alderman  of  the 
city,  and  was  once  a  well-known  citizen 
of  Connecticut.  At  some  other  time  I  will 
give  you  their  names.  "Pap"  Wyman, 
who  used  to  drive  his  well-remembered 
four-horse  silk  wao-on  through  Connecti- 
cut  and  Massachusetts,  keeps  a  gambling 
resort  and  bar  at  tlie  head  of  State  street. 
He  has  an  open  quarto  bible,  well  worn,  on 
a  handsome  stand  in  a  conspicuous  place 
near  the  entrance ;  and  above  the  bar,  in 
bold  gilt  letters,  is  the  legend  "Please  do 
not  swear.''  The  half  dozen  places  which 
I  visited  were  crowded  with  patrons.  Every- 
body gambles ;  it  is  unquestionably  the 
principal  business  of  the  city.  Three  men 
preside  at  every  table  and  conduct  the 
game.  Of  these  one  seems  to  be  the  dicta- 
tor or   referee.     He    occupies    an   elevated 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  Q\ 

position  above  tlie  otliers,  and  intently 
watches  tlie  movements  of  the  cards  and 
the  di>])Osition  of  tlie  ''  chips."  Young 
men  and  old  were  playing,  some  whose  soft 
hands  indicated  that  they  were  unused  to 
manual  labor,  and  many  who  were  evidently 
just  in  from  the  mines.  They  surged  in 
from  the  streets  and  waited  for  places  at  the 
tables  ;  indeed  there  never  seemed  to  be  any 
cessation  in  the  play. 

In  addition  to  these  legalized  gambling 
hells,  tlie  city  has  three  variety  theaters  and 
any  number  of  dance-halls.  There  are  six 
hundred  licensed  prostitutes  in  the  city,  each 
of  whom  pays  live  dollars  per  month  into  the 
treasury.  Vice  in  its  worst  and  lowest  anH 
most  repulsive  forms  not  only  stalks  unre- 
buked,  but  is  nursed  and  fostered  as  a  chief 
source  of  public  revenue.  One  of  the  city 
officials,  who  gave  me  this  information,  also 
assured  me  that  the  enormous  city  taxes  of 
more  than  three  cents  on  the  dollar  were 
actually  reduced  to  but  five  or  six  mills  by 


^2  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  revenue  derived  from  licensed  card 
tables,  roulette  tables,  billiard  tables,  bars, 
theaters,  saloons,  dance-halls,  and  prosti- 
tutes ! 

Such  is  Leadville — the  richest  mining  city 
in  the  world,  but  in  its  moral  aspect  decid- 
edly the  most  degraded  and  hopeless.  To 
one  reared  among  the  stern  virtues  of  Xew 
England  society,  and  the  robust  restraints  of 
Xew  England  laws,  the  very  atmosphere  of 
Leadville  seems  to  carry  the  taint  of  hell. 
Ko  Sabbath,  no  God,  the  home  a  brothel,  the 
chief  inhabitants  gamblers  and  prostitutes 
— what  a  place  has  the  mammon  of  gold 
wrought  out  and  set  uj)  to  attract  the  young 
men  of  the  east  who  would  "  make  haste  to 
be  rich  I "  We  shake  the  dust  from  our  feet 
and  leave  Leadville  under  the  friendly  sliel- 
ter  of  darkness.     It  is  enough. 

Thursday  morning  finds  us  back  at  Pueblo, 
one  hundred  and  sixty  miles  from  Leadville, 
at  breakfast.  At  twelve  we  dine  at  La 
Yeta,   another    hundred    miles    southwest, 


TO    THE   FACIFIC.  g3 

under  the  shadow  of  the  foothills  of  the 
Sangre  de  Christo  range.  At  two  p.  m.  we 
are  at  Yeta  Pass,  our  ultimate  destination 
on  this  supplementary  trip.  This  pass, 
through  which  the  Denver  6z  Eio  Grande 
Road  gets  over  Dump  Mountain  at  an  eleva- 
tion of  nine  thousand  three  hundred  and 
forty  feet,  is  scarcely  less  grand  or  beauti- 
ful in  its  scenic  effects  than  Marshall  Pass, 
already  described,  although  at  an  altitude 
less  by  nearly  one  thousand  five  hundred 
feet.  Some  of  the  grades  are  actually 
heavier,  its  curves  sharper,  and  its  approach- 
es more  precipitous.  In  reaching  its  sum- 
mit we  travel  fit\een  miles  from  the  valley, 
whereas  to  reach  the  summit  of  Marshall 
Pass  we  make  a  run  of  twenty-five  miles 
from  Salida,  where  the  grade  begins.  Xone 
of  this  party  will  be  likely  to  forget  the 
delightful  trip  which  occupied  the  afternoon 
of  Thursday.  The  weather  was  perfect; 
every  inch  of  the  ride  up  the  mountain  was 
a  panorama ;   the  half  hour  at  the  summit 


54  FROM   XEW   ENGLAND 

was  a  picnic,  and  the  tarry  at  La  Yeta  on 
the  return  was  a  happy  ending  of  a  glorious 
day.  I  shall  be  derelict  in  duty  if  I  fail  to 
make  acknowledgment  of  the  efforts  of  our 
indefatigable  manager,  Mr.  Haymond,  to 
amuse  and  entertain  his  party  at  La  Yeta, 
whether  by  his  pleasing  performance  on  the 
little  white  burro,  his  yiolin  concert  at  the 
La  Yeta  Hotel,  or  as  leader  of  the  inimita- 
ble quartette  at  a  later  hour  on  the  sleeper. 
These  little  incidents  are  of  not  much 
account  to  the  outside  world,  but  their 
mention  will  doubtless  prove  a  pleasant 
reminder  to  the  Kaymond  Party. 

Friday  morning  we  were  aroused  at  live 
o'clock,  to  change  cars  at  El  Moro  half  an 
hour  later.  El  Moro  has  three  hundred  and 
fifty  coke  ovens.  The  town  takes  its  name 
(which  signifies  "  The  Castle ")  from  the 
numerous  rock  elevations  around  it,  each 
bearino;  strikino-  resemblance  to  a  castle  or 
military  fortification.  We  breakfasted  at 
Eaton,  the   border  town  of   Xew  Mexico, 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  05 

having  now  completed  our  journeyings  in 
Colorado,  Raton  is  noted  as  the  railroad 
center  of  the  coal-minino-  district  of  Colfax 
County.  A  thousand  car-loads  of  coal  can 
be  produced  and  shipped  daily  from  this 
point.  Eighty  miles  southwest  is  Las  Yegas, 
wliere  we  stopped  for  dinner.  The  city  has 
nine  thousand  people.  By  favor  of  the  rail- 
road company  we  made  a  detour  of  five  miles 
to  the  Las  Yegas  Hot  Springs.  There  are 
thirty  of  them.  The  water  has  a  temper- 
ature of  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and 
fifty  degrees.  Its  odor  and  taste  are  such 
as  to  indicate  the  presence  of  rotten  eggs 
near  the  fountain-head.  Its  medicinal  qual- 
ities are  said  to  he  wonderful.  At  Las 
Yegas  we  met  an  excursion  party  of  some- 
what more  than  a  hundred,  going  East  to 
Chicago  and  Boston,  in  six  or  seven  Pull- 
man cars.  Our  train  pushes  onward,  past 
Levy,  over  Glorietta  Mountain,  at  one  time 
in  sight  of  the  ruins  of  an  old  Pecos  Pueblo 
and  church,  and  again  under  the  frowning 

5 


(36  FROM  XEW  ENGLAND 

heights  of  Point  Desolation,  until  Lamv  is 
reached,  eighteen  miles  from  Santa  Fe. 

And  here  I  bring  this  epistle  to  a  close,  in 
sight  of  the  ancient  city  of  whose  quaint 
architecture  and  mixed  population  so  much 
has  been  written.  We  shall  remain  at  the 
Palace  Hotel  until  Monday  morning,  and  I 
hope  in  the  interval  to  find  material  for  an 
interestino'  letter. 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  Q1 


Y. 

Deserts,  Flowers,  Oraxge  Groves,  Vine- 
yards— Santa  Fe  and  its  Adobes — The  In- 
dians of  Arizona — A  Thonsand  Miles  of 
Desert — Finally  the  Flowers  and  Oranges. 

Los  Axgeles,  Cal.,  May  15th. 
I  closed  my  last  letter  to  TJie  Post  just 
as  we  were  about  to  enter  the  city  of  Santa 
F6.  There  is  so  little  to  be  said  of  this  dull 
old  town  that  perhaps  I  ought  to  have 
waited  fifteen  minutes  and  included  the 
story  of  it  in  that  letter  ;  but  since  I  did 
not,  you  will  expect  it  now.  The  railroad 
station  is  a  large  half  mile  from  the  city. 
We  traversed  the  distance  in  carriages — 
not  on  the  backs  of  burros,  the  custom- 
ary conveyance.  It  was  a  genuine  nov- 
elty, this  ride    by   moonlight    through    tlie 


03  FROM  XEW   ENGLAND 

narrow  streets  and  among  the  adobe 
houses  without  any  perceptible  roofs, 
and  into  and  across  the  swift-runnino- 
riv^er  whicli  courses  through  the  heart  of 
Santa  Fe.  For  this  river  has  only  one  or 
two  narrow  footbridges  over  it,  and  nowhere 
a  bridge  that  can  be  crossed  by  a  horse  and 
carriage.  The  burros  ford  it,  and  the  in- 
habitants who  ride  probably  wouldn't  get 
from  one  side  to  the  other  by  any  other  pro- 
cess than  fording  it,  if  they  had  a  dozen 
bridges.  This  is  because  their  ancestors 
have  done  so.  In  Santa  F^,  as  in  most 
other  portions  of  Xew  Mexico,  the  latest 
generation  always  imitates  the  preceding 
generation  in  all  that  is  possible  of  imita- 
tion. Hence  the  mud  huts,  innocent  of  the 
commonest  toilet  conveniences ;  hence  the 
iilthiness  of  the  surroundings  of  the  habi- 
tations of  the  natives ;  hence  the  resem- 
blance between  the  Santa  Fe  of  1542  and 
the  Santa  Fe  of  1SS4. 

This  is  the  capital  city  of  New  Mexico.  Its 


rO   THE   PACIFIC.  69 

population  is  about  seven  thousand,  of  wliicli 
fully  five  thousand  are  Spanish  and  Mexi- 
cans speaking  the  Spanish  langnage.  It  is 
the  center  of  supplies  for  the  surrounding 
country,  and  is  constantly  tilled  with  freight 
wagons  and  pack  animals,  the  latter  being 
almost  entirely  the  little  burros  or  donkeys 
commonly  used  throughout  the  Territory. 
The  supply  of  firewood  for  the  city  is  almost 
wholly  brouo"lit  in  on  their  backs.  The 
valley  is  irrigated  with  water  from  Santa 
Fe  Creek,  it  being  well  known  by  all 
authorities  on  the  subject  tbat  no  rain  ever 
falls — although  there  were  copious  and 
drenching  showers  on  ])otli  of  the  two  days 
of  our  sojourn  in  the  city.  The  climate  is 
most  agreeable,  the  atmosphere  rare  and 
pure,  as  might  l)e  expected  at  an  altitude 
of  seven  thousand  feet.  The  town  is  irreg- 
ularly laid  out,  and  the  unpaved  streets  are 
narrow,  crooked,  and  ancient-looking.  The 
public  square,  or  plaza,  containing  about 
two  and  a  half  acres,  is  bordered  on  three 


70  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

sides  by  the  principal  business  houses,  and 
on  the  fourth  bv  the  old  "  Palace,"  or  Gov- 
ernment building,  containing  the  principal 
legislative  chambers.  The  buildings  are 
almost  wholly  of  adobe,  seldom  more  than 
one  story  in  height.  The  adobe  is  simply 
mud,  mixed  with  straw  or  stubble,  formed 
in  blocks  eighteen  inches  long,  nine  inches 
wide,  and  four  inches  thick,  baked  by  the 
sun  until  they  are  hard  enough  to  be 
handled  without  breaking.  Just  outside 
each  hut  is  a  bake-oven,  hemispherical  in 
form,  in  which  the  family  bread  is  baked 
during  the  day,  and  in  which  the  family 
dog  sleeps  at  night.  I  visited  several  of 
these  huts,  and,  by  the  aid  of  an  interpret- 
er, succeeded  in  interviewing  their  inmates. 
Some  of  them  are  orderly  and  neat,  as  Mex- 
ican neatness  goes,  but  they  may  be  scented 
from  afar  every  time.  Within  the  town,  and 
directly  opposite  tlie  Palace  Hotel — which 
is  our  home  while  in  the  city — is  the  mili- 
tary reservation  of  Fort  Marcy.     The  stir- 


TO    rilK   FACJFJC.  71 

ring  music  of  its  military  band  woke  our 
party  to  the  realization  of  a  serenade  the 
first  night  after  our  arrival.  On  the  heights 
north  of  the  city  are  the  ruins  of  old  Fort 
Marcy,  built  and  occupied  by  Kearney  in 
1846,  when  the  Territory  first  fell  under 
control  of  the  United  States.  We  visited 
the  principal  attractions  of  the  city,  namely, 
the  old  churches  of  San  Miguel  and  Santa 
Guadaloupe,  the  exposition  building,  and 
the  establishment  where  is  manufactured 
the  famous  Mexican  filigree  jewelry.  Some 
of  our  party  took  in  an  Indian  dance  at  the 
Burro  Exchange,  while  the  rest  of  us  re- 
mained at  the  Palace  listening  to  Judge 
Sloan's  taffy,  and  laughing  at  Almy's  little 
story  of  the  champion  liar  who  was  disem- 
boweled by  a  panther,  but  survived  by  a 
neat  transfusion  trick.  We  parted  from 
our  friend  and  manao-er,  ^Ir.  Ravmond,  at 
Santa  Fe,  who  placed  us  in  charge  of  Mr. 
Harding  from  this  point  and  returned  to 
Boston   to  look   after  his  White  Mountain 


72  FROM  NEW  EXGLAND 

excursions.  We  reluctantly  parted  com- 
pany, also,  witli  Mr.  Bradley  of  "Worcester, 
who  with  his  wife  was  summoned  by  tele- 
graph to  return  on  account  of  the  death  of 
his  father.  Sunday  forenoon  most  of  the 
party  attended  the  Congregational  Church, 
whose  pastor  is  Eev.  Mr.  Kellogg,  formerly 
of  Jewett  City,  Conn.  His  pulpit  was  oc- 
cupied in  the  afternoon  by  the  venerable 
Dr.  "Worcester,  a  member  of  our  party  of 
excursionists.  Monday  morning  we  were 
breakfasted  at  six  o'clock,  and  transferred 
from  the  hotel  to  the  railroad  station. 
The  abominal)le  chimes  of  the  old  cathed- 
ral rang  out  their  matin  as  we  entered  the 
transfer  carriages,  bade  farewell  to  the 
hospitable  Palace  Hotel,  and  were  again 
put  through  Santa  Fe  Creek  at  its  deepest 
ford  in  a  style  which  would  do  credit  to  any 
Jehu,  either  east  or  west.  We  made  the 
station  safely,  and  at  seven  o'clock  resumed 
our  westward  journey.  The  route  took 
us   back   to   Lamy,  and    thence    southwest 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  73 

over  the  A.,  T.  &  S.  F.  Eailroad.  Sixty- 
seven  miles  away  is  Albuquerque,  where 
we  alight  for  a  moment  and  greet  another 
Connecticut  man,  Eev.  Mr.  Murphy, 
formerly  of  Granby  and  Essex,  who  is 
now  pastor  of  a  Congregational  Church 
in  Albuquerque.  It  seems  remarkable, 
as  it  certainly  is  gratifying,  to  meet  so 
many  New  England  men  at  all  import- 
ant western  localities ;  and  we  notice,  too, 
that  they  generally  hold  positions  of  trust 
and  influence.  Just  west  of  the  place  last 
named  the  train  halts  at  a  large  Indian  vil- 
lage to  enable  us  to  observe  the  natives. 
They  come  flocking  about  the  cars,  nearly 
or  quite  a  hundred  of  them,  with  pottery 
and  turquoises  to  sell.  They  are  nearly  all 
squaws,  old  and  young,  wearing  none  too 
much  clothing  for  the  weather,  or  for  de- 
cency's sake.  One  little  girl,  perhaps  ten 
years  old,  attracted  my  attention  by  her  dress, 
which  was  that  of  civilization  and  unlike 
the  garb  of  her  companions.     I  ventui'ed  to 


74  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

address  her,  and  found  that  she  spoke  excel- 
lent English.  She  had  been  three  years 
at  school  at  Albuqnerque,  and  had  learned 
to  read  and  write  as  well  as  speak  English 
with  wonderful  accuracy.  In  response  to 
questions  she  told  me  her  age  and  name, 
something  about  lier  home  and  associates, 
and  soon  became  the  central  object  of  inter- 
est in  our  crowd.  When  asked  why  she 
dressed  like  little  girls  of  civilized  people, 
she  promptly  replied  that  since  she  had  been 
to  scliool  she  had  no  wish  to  follow  the  cus- 
toms of  her  people  in  the  matter  of  dress. 
It  would  have  been  a  real  pleasure  if  I 
could  have  made  her  a  present  of  a  suitable 
book,  as  she  said  she  was  fond  of  reading. 
But  we  had  no  other  reading  matter  than 
the  railroad  time  tables,  so  I  was  obliged  to 
content  myself  with  dropping  a  small  coin 
into  her  hand,  instead,  for  memory's  sake. 
For  nearly  two  hundred  miles,  or  as  far 
as  Rincon,  we  follow  the  course  of  the  Rio 
Grande.     Trees   of  respectable    dimensions 


TO    THE   TACIFIC.  75 

occasionally  inake  their  appearance,  and 
some  vegetation,  in  the  way  of  stunted  grass 
and  the  niuskeet  bean  brush,  makes  it  pos- 
sible for  immense  flocks  of  sheep  to  nibble  a 
good  living.  AYe  took  supper  at  Deming, 
and  next  morning  started  on  the  thousand- 
mile  ride  across  the  desert  which  lies  west 
of  the  ]^ew  Mexico  and  Arizona  line. 
Drifting  sands,  and  baked  clay  bottoms,  and 
rocks,  and  sterile  formations  generally,  suc- 
ceed each  other  throughout  the  whole  dis- 
tance, varied  only  by  occasional  forests  of 
cactus  in  every  conceivable  form  of  ungain- 
liness,  or  growths  of  scrub  cedar  in  spots 
where  a  little  humidity  make  this  low  form 
of  vegetable  life  possible. 

There  is  very  little  worthy  of  note  until 
long  after  we  cross  the  Colorado  Kiver  and 
get  np  into  the  vicinity  of  the  San  Bernar- 
dino Range  of  mountains.  I  should,  how- 
ever, make  an  exception  of  the  repeated  and 
wonderful  mirages  seen  at  several  points  on 
the  desert,  and  especially  just  east  of  Tuc- 


76  FROM  NEW  EXGLAXD 

son.  Xo  descriptions  that  I  now  recall  of 
these  strange  illnsions  have  conveyed  to  mj 
mind  any  proper  conception  of  the  reality 
as  beheld  at  the  south  of  us  during  the 
Tuesday  of  our  memorable  trip  across  the 
sand  plains  of  Central  Arizona.  At  Benson 
Junction  we  passed  the  smelting  works  of 
the  Tombstone  Milling  d:  Mining  Com- 
pany, whose  stock  is  so  largely  owned  in 
Hartford  and  other  parts  of  Connecticut. 
The  mines  are  twenty -two  miles  south.  I 
am  informed  that  the  company  is  just  now 
suffering  from  a  strike  amono^  the  miners, 
all  work  being  suspended  until  the  differ- 
ences can  be  adjusted.  The  company  pay 
three  dollars  per  day  ;  the  miners  want  four 
dollars.  At  Tucson  we  meet  the  worst  look- 
ing Indians  yet  seen — the  Yumas — a  bad 
lot,  ugly,  treacherous,  repulsive  to  tlie  last 
degree.  Neither  the  "braves"  nor  the 
squaws  have  drapery  enough  about  them  to 
render  their  presence  tolerable  in  the  vicinity 
of  a  railroad  station. 


TO    riJK  PACIFIC.  77 

After  I'uiiiiing  tlirou<:li  one  straight  stretch 
of  sand,  sixty  miles,  we  brino;  up  at  a  perfect 
oasis — Dos  Palnios — where  are  some  elegant, 
palm  trees,  and  a  variety  of  vegetation  whose 
existence  is  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that 
the  soil  was  brought  on  cars  and  dumped 
there,  and  that  is  it  kept  irrigated  from  an 
artesian  well  close  at  hand.  After  leaving 
this  breathing-spot  we  encounter  but  a  few 
miles  more  of  the  desert,  coming  at  AVhite- 
water  into  the  region  of  wild  iiow^ers,  which 
delight  and  astonish  us  by  their  beauty  and 
variety.  From  this  place,  on  to  Los  Ange- 
les, we  "find  a  succession  of  flowers  in 
unnumbered  millions,  flowering  cacti  in  all 
the  shades  of  tlie  rainbow,  yucca  blossoms 
in  waxen  clusters  larger  than  the  largest 
bunches  of  bananas,  barley  fields  ready  for 
the  sickle,  apricot  orchards,  orange  groves 
yellow  with  fruit,  acres  upon  acres  of  vine- 
yards, the  beautiful  blooming  alfalfa  in  its 
bed  of  ffreen,  and  all  the  mvriad  forms  of 
veo-etation  which  is  found  onlv  in  this  j^ar- 


Y8  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

den  of  the  world.  The  contrast  with  the 
desolation  of  but  an  hour  ago  is  so  striking 
as  to  command  the  wonder  and  admiration 
of  us  all. 

At  Colton,  iiftj-eight  miles  from  Los 
Angeles,  where  the  train  made  a  halt,  I  was 
surprised  to  observe  upon  the  platform  of 
the  station  your  Mr.  B.  A.  Simmons,  the 
wholesale  grocer  of  State  Street.  He  is  in 
the  West  looking  after  business  interests, 
especially  in  the  State  of  Arizona. 

We  reached  Los  Angeles  at  one  o'clock 
this  afternoon,  and  are  housed  at  the  Pico. 
A  week  is  assigned  for  this  beautiful  region. 
Meanwhile  the  Yosemite  parties  will  be 
made  up,  in  which  nearly  every  one  of  us 
expects  to  participate.  Los  Angeles  has  a 
po23ulation  of  over  twenty  thousand.  Its 
main  thoroughfares  have  an  aspect  of  decided 
business  activity.  It  is  emphatically  a  city 
of  groves  and  gardens.  Fruits  and  flowers 
abound  everywhere.  There  are  large  orch- 
ards and  vineyards  within  the  city  limits, 


TO    THE   PACJFIC.  79 

and  many  priv^ate  residences  are  embowered 
in  flowers  and  surrounded  by  park-like 
grounds.  I  have,  of  course,  not  yet  had  the 
opportunity  for  an}-  very  extended  observa- 
tions, but  enough  is  already  apparent  to 
indicate  numerous  and  inviting  attractions 
for  those  who,  like  me,  have  known  of  south- 
ern California  only  by  the  books.  I  expect 
to  visit  Pasadena  to-morrow,  and  all  tlie 
other  delightful  suburbs  on  succeeding  days. 
Oranges  are  ripe  ;  if  I  can't  get  in  a  box  of 
them  for  The  Post's  editorial  table,  I  may 
be  able  to  ship  you  a  few  of  the  blossoms. 
We'll  see. 


80  FRoyr  new  England 


TI. 

Delightful  Days  at  Los  Angeles — Soiyie 
Surprises  in  the  Valley — Sierra  Madre  Villa 
— The   Groves  and    Vineyards — Great   Cali- 
fornia Wineries — A  Day  at  Santa  Monica — 
The  Climate. 

Los  AxGELEs,  Cal.,  May  IStli. 
'  I  have  spent  four  delightful  days  in  this 
"City  of  the  Angels."  The  city  itself  is 
very  like  a  hundred  other  cities,  in  its 
streets,  and  buildings,  and  people,  and  busi- 
ness, and  whatever  else  is  likely  to  meet 
the  eye  of  a  casual  observer.  It  has  more 
Chinese  and  fewer  Irishmen  among  its  com- 
mon people  than  has  Hartford,  for  instance ; 
but  in  all  its  material  aspects  it  is  not  so 
unlike  the  average  Xew  England  city  of  its 
size  as  to  create  any  marked  impression  on 


TO    THE  PACIFIC.  81 

the  Xew  England  visitor  who  makes  its 
acquaintance.  It  has  picturesque  hillsides 
on  which  nestle  the  cottages  of  the  middle 
classes ;  so  has  Worcester,  and  so  have 
scores  of  villages  in  onr  own  State.  Its 
broad  avenues  are  bordered  with  the  em- 
bowered ]^alaces  of  wealth,  with  green 
lawns,  and  stately  trees,  and  fountains,  and 
singing  birds ;  so  are  your  Washington 
Street  and  Farmington  Avenue,  and  as  well 
the  aristocratic  streets  and  avenues  of  every 
other  Northern  city.  It  is  not  Los  Angeles 
proper  that  impresses  the  stranger  with  a 
single  pleasurable  emotion  that  he  has  not 
already  felt,  perhaps,  a  thousand  times. 
And  this  will  account  for  the  disappoint- 
ment which  manifested  itself  in  the  elonga- 
ted countenances  and  sarcastic  remarks  of 
manv  of  the  Eavmond  Fartv  the  mornino- 

t/  ./  t/  o 

after  the  day  of  our  arrival  in  the  city. 
Some  of  them  were  actually  sour.  They 
thought  they  had  seen  it  all,  and  were  now 
ready  to  move  on  to  San  Francisco  1     Thurs- 


g2  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

day's  excursion  in  carriages  dispelled  the 
illusion,  and  taught  us  that  the  glory  of 
Los  Angeles  is  its  suburbs.  Let  me  describe 
our  ride  to  Pasadena,  San  Gabriel,  Sunny 
Slope,  and  the  Sierra  Madre  Yilla,  a  circuit 
of  thirty-five  miles  entirely  within  the  v^al- 
ley. 

A  right  royal  day  it  proved,  in  its  favor- 
ing skies  and  the  balminess  of  its  atmosphere, 
but  chiefly  in  the  abundance  of  wonders 
which  it  brought  to  our  amazed  and  now 
surfeited  senses.  The  visual  delights  of 
landscape,  and  fruit,  and  flower,  were  a 
constant  challenge  to  our  highest  admira- 
tion ;  the  perfume  of  roses  and  orange 
groves  made  the  thin  air  deliciously  intoxi- 
cating ;  while  the  appeals  to  the  palate 
which  came  from  the  orange  orchards,  the 
vineyards  and  the  wineries,  were  entirely 
beyond  our  poor  powers  of  resistance.  To 
all  these  unfamiliar  luxuries  and  tempta- 
tions it  must  be  confessed  the  majority  of 
us  became  willing  subjects.     The  valley,  or 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  83 

succession  of  vallevs,  tlirouo-h  whicli  our 
route  lies,  is  upward  of  a  liundred  miles  in 
length,  with  an  average  width  of  about  fif- 
teen miles.  It  is  watered  bv  the  Los  An- 
geles IviA'er,  from  which  hundreds  of  irri- 
gating streams  are  diverted  by  means  of 
canals,  water-wheels,  and  hydraulic  rams. 
For  cultivation  of  the  soil  in  all  this  part  of 
the  country  the  dependence  upon  artificial 
irrigation  is  absolute.  Xothing  is  or  can  be 
produced  without  it.  It  is  even  more  a 
feature  here  than  fertilizing  is  in  the  East. 
This  great  valley,  or  such  part  of  it  as  has 
been  brought  under  cultivation,  is  covered 
witli  vineyards  and  orange  orchards,  with 
fields  of  barley,  groves  of  lemon,  fig,  and 
English  walnut  trees.  The  roads  are  bor- 
dered with  pepper  trees,  which  at  this  sea- 
son present  a  beautiful  a])pearance,  fes- 
tooned as  they  are  with  their  deep  red 
chisters  of  ripening  pepper  berries.  Palm  and 
banana  trees  occasionally  rear  their  grace- 
ful forms  amid  miles  of  cypress  hedges,  and 


84  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  encaly23tiis  abounds  everywhere,  growing 
to  great  size  and  forming  the  chief  depen- 
dence for  fire  wood.  Groves  of  live-oak 
with  its  beautiful  dark  foliage  fringe  the 
streams  and  afford  grateful  shade  upon  the 
highways,  the  wild  lands  or  occasional  sand 
patches  being  carpeted  with  wild  flowers  in 
every  conceivable  hue,  and  in  forms  of  won- 
derful beauty.  The  fig,  the  apricot,  the 
peach,  the  Japanese  plum,  the  olive,  the 
pomegranate,  and  scores  of  other  fruit-bear- 
ing trees  with  less  familiar  names,  are  all 
about  us  in  fruit  or  bloom.  Indeed,  this 
drive  of  nearly  forty  miles  aftbrds  a  view 
of  the  fauna  and  flora  of  Southern  Califor- 
nia as  complete  as  it  is  entrancing  and 
memorable. 

To  me  the  chief  objects  of  interest 
amid  all  this  profusion  are  three,  namely, 
the  roses,  the  orange  groves,  and  the  vine- 
yards. Of  the  first  I  can  give  you  no  ade- 
quate description.  I  have  upon  my  table 
at   this   moment    a    bouquet    of  rose   buds 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  85 

which  will  average  larger  than  a  hen's  egg. 
I  don't  know  their  names,  further  than  that 
half  of  them  are  my  special  delight,  the 
moss  rose.  Others  are  white,  salmon-colored, 
the  deepest  red,  and  the  loveliest  Ijlush. 
The  rose  trees  attain  great  size  and  are 
most  prolific.  Some  of  the  creepers  are 
trained  to  cover  an  entire  arbor.  I  do  not 
think  the  roses  are  as  fragrant  as  many 
that  we  find  East,  hut  in  magnitude  of 
bloom  they  rival  the  peony  at  its  best.  I 
have  seen  several  red  roses  that  measure  six 
inches  across.  I  should  be  greatly  delighted 
if  a  few  of  these  Los  Angeles  roses  could  be 
transplanted  and  made  to  thrive  on  certain 
lawns  whicli  I  could  name  on  Winthrop 
Street  and  Sigourney  Street  in  your  City  of 
Hartford. 

Not  everybody  has  seen  an  orange  grove. 
But  everybody  has  an  idea,  from  description 
or  otherwise,  if  he  has  not  seen  for  himself, 
how  an  orange  grove  looks.  I  had  an  idea, 
but  it  was  not  the  correct  one.     Fur  instance. 


8g  FEOM  NEW  ENGLAND 

I  never  saw  or  heard  it  stated  that  orange 
groves  are  plowed,  and  liarrowed,  and  hoed, 
arid  kept  as  free  from  grass  and  weeds  as  a 
vegetable  garden.  But  snch  is  the  fact; 
and  when  I  saw  my  first  "  grove  "  standing 
on  plowed  ground,  instead  of  on  pasture 
land  like  the  apple  orchards  of  ^N^ew  Eng- 
land, I  recorded  the  event  as  surprise  num- 
ber one.  Again,  while  standing  amid  a 
cluster  of  orange  trees  and  observing  the 
profusion  of  great  golden  globes  pendant 
from  the  branches  in  very  direction,  I  ven- 
tured a  remark  to  the  gardener:  "  We  are 
just  at  the  proj^er  season  for  seeing  the  fruit 
at  its  best  V  "  You  may  come  again  at 
Christmas,  and  it  will  be  as  you  see  it  now," 
he  replied.  AYhich  is  true,  for  the  orange 
tree  of  Southern  California  is  ever  green 
and  ever  bearing.  It  buds  and  flowers  and 
fruits  continually,  from  January  to  Decem- 
ber. This  was  surprise  number  two.  And 
while  I  am  in  the  line  of  confession,  it  may 
as  well  be  recorded  here  that  mv  idea  of  a 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  §7 

"  grove "  liad  by  early  education  become 
so  contracted  that  surprise  number  three 
awaited  me  when  I  rode  straight  througli 
six  miles  of  orange  trees  and  learned  that 
the  plant  extended  miles  on  either  hand. 
Xo  name  less  dignified  than  "  orange  for- 
ests "  will  appropriately  designate  these 
great  tracts  of  land  devoted  to  orange  cul- 
ture in  the  Los  Angeles  A^alley.  The  local- 
ity known  as  Pasadena  is  simply  a  great 
collection  of  private  residences  whose  own- 
ers are  orange  growers.  Their  houses  are 
palaces,  and  their  grounds  are  flower  gar- 
dens, each  in  the  midst  of  an  orange  grove. 
There  may  be,  but  there  need  not  be,  a  more 
beautiful  spot  upon  earth.  On  the  north  of 
the  valley,  tifteen  miles  from  Los  Angeles, 
at  tlie  foot  of  the  Sierra  Madre  Eange  of 
mountains.-  is  the  Sierra  Madre  Yilla,  a 
charming  hostelry  in  the  midst  of  an  orange 
and  lemon  orchard,  with  an  immense  lawn 
covered  with  roses  and  tastily  trimmed 
cyj)resses.     AVe  dined  at  the  villa,  and 


gg  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

courtesy  of  the  proprietor  went  tliroiigli 
the  grounds  and  lielped  ourselves  to  fruits 
and  flowers.  The  venerable  doctor  showed 
us  every  attention,  making  the  brief  visit 
exceedingly  pleasant  and  profitable. 

And  now  the  vineyards.  Grape  culture 
is  doubtless  the  principal  industry  of  tliis 
portion  of  the  State.  The  acreage  under 
cultivation  far  exceeds  that  of  the  orange. 
There  are  twelve  million  grape-vines  in  the 
San  Gabriel  and  San  Bernardino  Yalleys 
alone.  We  passed  on  the  road  one  vineyard 
of  fifteen  hundred  acres,  and  scores  of 
smaller  ones  covering  anywhere  from  twenty 
acres  up  to  many  hundreds.  We  made  a 
brief  visit  to  L.  J.  Rose's  famous  ranche 
and  vineyards,  and  to  his  winery.  He 
owns  five  thousand  acres  of  land,  nine 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  which  are  set 
with  grapes,  and  six  hundred  acres  with 
orange  trees.  The  annual  product  of  this 
winery  is  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
gallons  of  wines,  and  eighty-five  thousand 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  gQ 

gallons  of  grape  brandy.  Mr.  Eose  is 
owner  of  the  famous  trotting  stallion  "  Sul- 
tan," whicli  with  several  other  noted  liorses 
were  exhibited  to  us  at  the  stables. 

Through  favor  of  Hon.  Mr.  Marx  of  Tole- 
do, Ohio,  a  member  of  the  party,  your 
correspondent  and  the  Messrs.  Whidden  of 
Boston  were  entertained  at  the  great  win- 
ery of  Messrs.  Kohler  &  Frohling,  which  is 
located  near  this  city.  This  is  not  only  the 
pioneer,  but  the  most  extensive  wine  house 
in  the  country.  Its  vineyards  are  here  and 
in  Sonoma,  its  warehouses  in  Kew  York  and 
San  Francisco.  Four  thousand  tons  of 
grapes  are  crushed  here  annually,  the  pro- 
duct being  seven  hundred  thousand  gallons 
of  wine,  and  thirty  thousand  gallons  of 
brandy.  This  house  has  a  national  reputa- 
tion for  the  excellence  and  purity  of  its 
wines,  which  are  put  upon  the  market  in  bulk, 
the  casks  being  made  upon  the  premises. 
We  had  the  satisfaction  of  witnessing  the 
various  processes  employed  in  wine  making, 
and  of  testing  the  quality  of  the  Angelica, 


90  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

Muscatel,  Port,  and  other  brands  produced 
here. 

Friday  was  occupied  by  a  few  of  us  in  a 
trip  to  Santa  Monica,  the  alleged  "  Long 
Branch  of  the  Pacific  Coast."  The  Pacific 
Ocean  is  there — nothing  more,  if  we  except 
the  lone  fisherman  who  patiently,  but  un- 
successfully, waited  for  a  bite  during  the 
four  mortal  hours  that  we  tarried  upon  the 
sands.  There  are  a  thousand  places  on 
the  Atlantic  Coast  between  Portland  and 
Charleston,  either  of  which  is  more  attrac- 
tive as  a  seaside  resort  than  Santa  Monica. 
The  place,  however,  afiords  a  good  sea- 
breeze,  has  a  narrow  beach  with  safe  surf  bath- 
ing, a  bluff  sixty  or  seventy  feet  high,  and 
a  little  village  a  few  rods  back.  It  is  the 
terminus  of  the  Los  Angeles  <k  Indepen- 
dence Railroad,  fifteen  miles  from  the  city. 
The  ride  to  and  from  Santa  Monica  is  very 
pleasant,  the  road  passing  through  a  highly 
cultivated  section,  as,  indeed,  may  be  said 
of  the  route  by  which  every  suburb  of  this 
objective  point  is  reached. 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  Ql 

In  company  with  two  other  gentlemen  I 
visited  Washington  Garden,  a  large  park 
and  orange  grove  in  the  western  part  of  the 
city,  Saturday.  Tliere  is  a  pavilion  and 
refreshment  hall,  with  other  facilities  for 
enjoyment.  Twenty-five  cents  gives  the 
"  freedom  of  the  garden,''  which  means  to 
appropriate  all  the  flowers  and  oranges  one 
can  eat  or  carry  away  in  his  pockets.  I  find 
that  practice  has  raised  my  inside  capacity 
to  about  ten,  and  that  Avith  overcoat  and 
duster  at  hand  I  have  pockets  for  about  two 
dozen  of  the  robust  sizes.  My  room  at  the 
Pico  Hotel  has  about  a  peck  of  orange 
blossoms,  bestowed  in  various  convenient 
places,  which  I  have  brought  as  trophies 
from  one  or  another  of  the  groves  and  gar- 
dens where  this  "  freedom  "  has  been  ex- 
tended. It  is  an  uncommonly  sweet  room 
for  a  hotel — much  sweeter  then  when  first 
assigned  to  me. 

After  an  experience  of  four  days  in  Los 
Angeles  I  feel  like  confessing  to  considerable 
disappointment  in  regard  to  the  climate.    It 


92  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

has  been  represented  as  phenomenally  salu- 
brious and  healthful.  I  have  seen  it  stated 
repeatedly  that  the  purity  and  dryness  of  its 
atmosphere  are  unequaled  "  elsewhere  on  the 
globe,"  and  that  it  is  particularly  adapted  as 
a  residence  for  persons  with  weak  lungs  or 
of  consumptive  tendencies.  I  do  not  think 
that  the  facts  warrant  such  statements. 
Each  day  has  thus  far  been  sunny,  but  there 
is  a  chill  in  the  atmosphere,  particularly  in 
the  early  morning,  which  is  very  trying  even 
to  those  whose  lungs  are  not  weak.  Those 
of  our  party  who  have  allowed  their  windows 
to  remain  open  through  the  night,  have 
almost  without  exception  taken  cold.  I  do 
not  think  the  climate  here  is  at  all  compara- 
ble with  that  of  many  places  in  Colorado. 
Sixty  miles  east,  at  Hiverside,  is  a  better 
place  for  invalids,  because  it  is  protected 
from  the  harsh  ocean  breezes  and  has  a 
much  more  equable  temperature.  Los  An- 
geles has  obtained  a  good  start,  but  Pomona 
and  Riverside  will  give  it  a  hard  pull  in  the 
struggle  for  population  and  business. 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  93 

They  treat  dead  editors  liere  with  great 
respect.  Thomas  J.  Caystile,  late  associate 
editor  of  the  Los  Angeles  Times  was  buried 
this  afternoon  with  very  imposing  ceremo- 
nies— bands  of  music,  military,  Knights 
Templar  and  Masonic  organizations  partici- 
pating. Three  thousand  people  were  pres- 
ent. It  was  a  great  demonstration,  and  I 
liave  no  doul)t  that  among  the  deepest 
mourners  of  the  editor  dead  .was  many  a 
man  who  had  "  stopped  his  paper "  on 
account  of  some  fancied  grievance  from  the 
editor  living.  Of  the  three  daily  papers 
published  in  this  city,  not  one  issues  a  Mon- 
day edition.  They  say  the  printers  will  not 
work  Sunday  I 

Fifteen  of  our  party  started  yesterday  for 
the  Yosemite ;  about  as  many  more  will  go 
to-morrow,  and  another  installment  on  Tues- 
day. The  itinerary  names  Wednesday  as 
the  day  of  departure  for  those  who  go  direct 
to  San  Francisco.  That  means  your  corre- 
spondent, among  others. 


94  FROyf  NEW  ENGLAND 


Tehachapi  Pass  and  the  Sierra  Xevadas 
— Little  Peculiarities  of  Los  Angeles — Fare- 
luell  Trips  among  the  Orange  Groves — The 
Mojave  Desert — Crossing  the  Backbone — Ap- 
proaching San  Francisco. 

San  Francisco,  Cal.,  May  23d. 
We  were  a  fall  week  at  Los  Angeles ;  long 
enough  to  become  familiar  with  everytliing 
except  the  wretched  idiom  of  its  Mexicans 
and  "greasers,"  and  the  insoluble  intricacies 
of  Los  Angeles  veracity.  I  have  known 
some  accomplished  prevaricators  in  the  land 
of  steady  habits,  but  none  whose  exploits 
deserve  record  in  the  distinguished  category 
where  the  inhabitants  of  this  city  appear. 
Falsehood  floats  serenely  in  the  atmosphere 
of  the  real  estate  ofiices,  impedes  your  pro- 


TO    THE  PACIFIC.  95 

gress  in  shopping  tours  among  the  mer- 
chants, and  drops  in  chunks  from  the  bland 
conntenance  of  the  heathen  Chinee  as  lie 
returns  live  of  your  twelve  pieces  from  the 
laundry  and  swears  "  him  alle  here."  We 
left  at  half  past  seven  oclock  a.  m.,  although 
the  time-table  had  it  quarter  past  twelve, 
and  our  native  porter  insisted  that  the  train 
would  depart  at  high  noon.  Divers  of  our 
party  have  been  apprehensive  of  possible 
infection  during  the  protracted  period  of  our 
sojourn  in  the  city.  As  you  will  observe, 
however,  by  this  paragraph,  no  indication  of 
taint  has  yet  made  it  appearance  among  us. 
Despite  the  little  impediment  above  al- 
luded to  in  the  way  of  our  liighest  enjoyment 
of  local  society,  I  think  it  may  be  said  trutli- 
fullv  (not  accordino;  to  the  Los  Ano-eles 
standard)  that  the  week  has  been  pleasantly 
and  profitably  spent.  I  have  in  a  previous 
letter  given  you  some  account  of  visits  to 
several  suburbs  of  the  city.  These  visita- 
tions were  continued,  including  pretty  much 


96  FROM  XEW  EXGLAND 

every  locality  of  interest  within  a  radius  of 
a  dozen  miles.  Throngli  the  continued  and 
abiding  courtesy  of  my  friend  TVhidden  of 
Boston,  I  was  entertained  during  one  event- 
ful day  at  the  magnificent  villa  and  orange 
ranch  of  Mr.  James  Ford,  ten  years  ago  a 
resident  of  the  old  Bay  State,  and  a  personal 
friend  of  your  Boston  correspondent,  Hon. 
B.  P.  Shillaber,  from  whom  Mr.  Whidden 
carried  letters  of  introduction.  Mr.  Ford's 
place  lies  under  the  shadow  of  the  Sierrsc 
Madre  Eange.  His  ranch  contains  fifty 
acres  under  cultivation,  being  principally 
orange  grove  and  vineyard.  The  approach 
to  his  charming  residence  is  through  a  pri- 
vate avenue  bordered  with  orange  trees,  in 
full  fruit,  more  than  half  a  mile  in  length 
and  leading  in  a  straight  line  from  the  high- 
way to  the  plaza  upon  which  the  cottage 
stands.  We  were  received  with  royal  hospi- 
tality by  the  proprietor  and  the  ladies  of 
the  family,  who  in  many  graceful  ways 
facilitated  our    participation  in  the  wealth 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  97 

of  fruits  and  flowers  by  wliicli  tliey  are 
surrounded.  I  do  not  need  to  say  that 
the  occasion  was  one  of  great  and  lasting 
interest. 

My  farewell  suburban  ride  and  walk,  still 
in  the  company  of  the  friend  above  men- 
tioned, was  to  the  largest  orange  orchard  in 
the  world,  a  short  distance  west  of  Los 
Angeles.  It  is  owned  by  a  Mr.  Wolfskill, 
who  puts  upon  the  market  this  season 
twenty-five  thousand  boxes  of  oranges  and 
five  thousand  boxes  of  lemons.  It  is  an 
immense  afi'air.  The  grounds  are  patrolled 
bv  an  Encjlishman  with  half  a  dozen  doojs, 
whose  business  it  is  to  intercept  intruders. 
Although  our  party  were  provided  with  a 
permit  from  headquarters,  this  officious 
English  dignitary,  with  an  obtuseness  of 
intellect  which  has  characterized  his  ances- 
try since  the  days  of  George  III.,  was  in- 
clined to  dispute  our  progress.  We  finally 
succeeded  in  convincing  him  that  we  were 
not  tramps,  or  thieves,  or  escaped  convicts, 


98  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

and  passed  on  unshot  by  him  or  ''  uncliawed  " 
by  his  dogs.  Mr,  Wolfskill  has  a  ^eat 
bonanza  in  his  orange  orchard.  He  gets 
three  dollars  a  box  for  the  fruit. 

I  had  a  very  pleasant  interview  Tuesday 
evening  with  Mr.  F.  O.  Mosebaeh,  formerly 
of  Hartford,  who  is  a  practicing  attorney  in 
this  city,  and  who  also  has  the  general  agency 
here  for  the  Hartford  Fire  Insurance  Com- 
pany. Mr.  Mosebaeh  was  for  several  years 
in  the  investment  department  of  the  ^Etna 
Life  at  the  home  office.  He  came  here  from 
Hartford  somewhat  less  than  two  years  ago. 
His  professional  business  here  is  quite  large, 
and  he  is  the  owner  of  a  ranch  of  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  acres,  about  forty  miles  north 
of  the  city.  He  is  an  accomplished  gen- 
tleman, and  it  is  a  pleasure  to  record  his 
prosperity. 

Our  final  departure  for  San  Francisco  was 
delayed  eighteen  hours  by  a  railroad  disaster 
near  Deming,  which  prevented  the  Pacific 
express  from  getting  through  until  the  morn- 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  99 

ing  of  the  twenty-second.  The  unpleasant- 
ness of  this  delay  was  fully  compensated, 
however,  by  the  daylight  trip  which  it 
secured  for  us  over  the  Tehachapi  Summit 
and  through  the  pass  of  the  same  name 
amid  the  Sierra  IS'evada  Mountains — a  part 
of  the  route'  invariably  passed  over  in  the 
night  time  when  trains  run  by  schedule 
either  way.  The  distance  from  Los  Angeles 
to  San  Francisco  is  precisely  four  hundred 
and  eighty-two  miles.  Thirty-six  miles 
from  the  first-named  city,  at  an  altitude  of 
about  one  thousand  five  hundred  feet,  the 
famous  San  Fernando  Tunnel,  more  than  a 
mile  and  a  quarter  in  length,  passes  through 
the  mountain  of  the  same  name.  Tlien  we 
enter  the  Mojave  Desert,  and  travel  a  full 
hundred  miles  through  a  scene  of  wilderness 
and  desolation,  save  only  fur  the  abundant 
wild  flowers  which  spring  everywhere  from 
the  unwatered  sand.  Forests  of  cactus  of 
course  abound  in  all  their  ugliness,  and  sage 
brush  occasionallv  relieves  the  bareness  of 


100  FROM  NEW  EXGLAXD 

the  surface.  But  for  hours  this  monotou}'- 
of  desert  sceuery  is  unbroken  bv  any  evi- 
dence of  civilization,  while  the  lizard  and 
ground-squirrel  appear  to  be  the  sole  repre- 
sentatives of  animal  life  in  all  the  dreary 
waste.  By  gradual  ascent,  however,  the 
summit  before  alluded  to  is  reached,  and 
then  we  begin  the  wonderful  and  seemingly 
perilous  ride  down  the  northern  slope.  For 
twenty-four  miles  we  descend  over  an  aver- 
age grade  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  feet  to 
the  mile,  through  seventeen  successive  tun- 
nels, each  from  three  hundred  to  a  thousand 
feet  in  lenci:th.  windino;  amono^  the  mountain 
tops  and  over  yawning  chasms  upon  frail 
trestle-work,  the  railway  once  actually  cross- 
ing its  own  path  where  a  drop  of  a  hundred 
feet  could  be  accomplished  in  no  other  way. 
From  some  of  these  altitudes  the  scenery 
is  surpassingly  beautiful.  We  look  down 
upon  a  thousand  lower  heights,  as  one  looks 
from  the  top  of  Mount  Washington  upon 
the  summits  which  lie  below  it ;  while  in  a 


TO    THE  PACIFIC.  IQl 

liuiulred  distant  valleys,  and  npon  the  slopes 
of  as  many  hillsides,  the  dark  and  dense 
foliage  of  clustering  live-oaks  appears  in 
charming  relief  against  the  lighter  green 
and  brighter  colors  of  alfalfa  and  wild  flow- 
ers and  barley  fields  which  carpet  the  earth 
as  far  as  the  eye  can  see  in  the  direction  of 
the  broad  valleys  of  the  San  Joacjuin  and 
the  Sacramento.  The  transition  from  desert 
on  the  south  to  almost  tropical  verdure  on 
the  north  of  this  "  backbone  of  the  conti- 
nent" is  exceedingly  impressive,  accom- 
plished as  it  is  within  a  few  moments  of 
time,  or  simply  by  traversing  the  less  than 
half  a  mile  of  level  ridge  which  constitutes 
the  "Divide."  It  is  said,  and  doubtless 
truly,  that  this  twenty-four  miles  of  way  up 
and  down  and  among  the  Sierra  Xevadas  is 
the  most  remarkable  triumph  of  railroad 
engineering  skill  ever  achieved  in  any  part 
of  the  world.  An  employ^  on  the  train  in- 
formed me  that  three  civil  engineers  of  great 
repute  lirst  undertook  to  survey  a  passage 


102  FROM  XEW  ENGLAND 

through  these  peaks  and  crags,  and  after 
repeated  attempts  declared  a  route  impossi- 
ble of  location.  A  boy  of  twenty  took  up 
the  job  where  his  elders  had  forsaken  it,  and 
this  miraculous  Pass  is  the  result.  It  must 
have  cost  a  vast  deal  of  money  as  well  as  of 
brains,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  the  undertaking 
ever  could  have  become  a  success  except 
with  the  aid  of  government  appropriations 
and  the  cheap  labor  of  the  Chinese.  I  re- 
member with  grand  satisfaction  my  experi- 
ences at  Marshall  and  Yeta  Passes,  at  Clear 
Creek  Canon  and  the  Poyal  Gorge,  and 
among  the  other  wonders  of  the  Colorado 
Rockies ;  but  I  think  the  impressions  received 
in  the  descent  from  Tehachapi  Summit  will 
be  quite  as  lasting,  and  infinitely  more  of  a 
"joy  forever'-  than  either  of  the  wonder- 
ful works  of  nature  or  art  wdiich  has  taken 
precedence  with  me  in  the  order  of  its 
beholding. 

Xight    overtook    us   soon    after    leaving 
Sumner  Station, — a  locality  which  will  be 


TO    THE  PACIFIC.  103 

remembered  chiefly  bv  reason  of  the  luxuri- 
ous supper  which  was  provided  tliere  for  our 
delectation.  Tipton  and  Toulare  were  suc- 
cessively reached  in  o^ood  order,  thouo-h  it 
must  be  confessed  that  neither  received  from 
myself  or  mv  friend  AVhidden  the  attention 
which  may  have  been  their  due.  This  pos- 
sible dereliction  in  duty  on  the  part  of  your 
correspondent,  should  you  think  best  to  re- 
quire an  explanation,  is  accounted  for  by 
the  demands  which  Talbot  and  Knowlton 
were  at  that  time  making  upon  us  in  an  un- 
decided game  at  whist.  The  fertile  valley 
of  the  San  Joaquin,  with  its  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  of  continuous  wheat  fields, 
would  have  been  at  least  worth  looking  at, 
but  there  was  no  moon  and  the  occupants 
of  the  train  were  honestly  attempting  to 
get  asleep,  after  being  roused  at  Madera 
by  the  misguided  portion  of  our  party  who 
insisted  on  being  let  off  there  to  make  a 
midnight  start  for  the  Yosemite.  At  half- 
past  four  in  the  morning  the  irrepressible 


104  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

porter  announced  that  we  were  approaching 
Oakland,  and  must  dress  immediately  in 
order  to  catch  the  ferryboat  for  San  Fran- 
cisco. Everybody  obeyed  promptly.  The 
train  passing  a  station  abont  ten  minutes 
later,  time  tables  were  consulted  and  Oak- 
land found  to  be  more  than  forty  miles  away. 
I  sat  down  in  an  easy  corner  and  tried  to 
woo  sleep.  The  sun  was  just  showing  itself 
in  the  east.  A  voluble  gentleman  came  in 
from  a  rear  Pullman  and  sat  down  beside 
me.  He  had  been  in  San  Francisco  once 
before,  and  of  course  knew  every  object 
about  us  at  a  glance.  He  called  the  names 
and  pointed  out  tlie  localities  of  all  the  vil- 
lages through  or  in  sight  of  which  we  passed, 
and  voiced  the  remarkable  pronunciations 
with  wonderful  facility.  This  was  "'  San 
Hosay,"  and  that  was  "  Mairsade,''  and  the 
other  was  "  Yelayo,"  and  so  on,  far  and 
near.  He  filled  me  up  with  statistics,  and 
explained  the  reason  why  "  we "  raised 
"  only "   two  hundred  and  thirty  thousand 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  \()^ 

tons  of  wheat  in  the  "  San  AVaukin  "  valley 
last  year.  In  process  of  time  we  reached 
Oakland,  and  the  train  halted  at  the  npper 
station  ;  but  the  gentleman  talked  on,  and 
called  my  attention  to  the  Golden  Gate,  and 
was  still  on  the  qui  vive  for  something  new 
to  do  or  say  for  my  delectation,  nor  gave 
himself  a  thought,  until  as  the  train  was 
moving  on  the  conductor  passed  us  and 
dropped  to  the  loquacious  stranger  a  re- 
mark :  "I  thought  you  wanted  to  get  olf 
at  Sixteenth  street."  This  was  Sixteenth 
street.  The  man  got  off  at  Sixteenth  street, 
but  in  a  demoralized  condition  owing  to  the 
headway  of  the  train.  If  I  had  not  become 
very  tired  uf  his  well-intended  attention,  too 
tired  to  exert  myself,  I  should  have  made 
an  effort  to  repress  the  smile  which  stole 
over  me  as  he  gathered  himself  and  beat  the 
soil  from  his  pants  and  settled  his  hat  firmly 
in  place.  It  was  rude  for  me  to  smile,  but  I 
know  my  rudeness  was  not  observed  by  him. 
We  reached  San'Francisco  at  seven  o'clock 


106  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

this  morning,  and  proceeded  at  once  to  the 
Palace  Hotel,  from  which  I  now  write. 
Half  the  time  allotted  for  the  entire  trip  has 
now  been  consumed,  thongh  we  have  but 
just  reached  the  extreme  western  terminus. 
We  shall  remain  in  this  city  two  full  weeks, 
spend  four  days  in  Monterey,  leaving  for  the 
East  on  the  eleventh  of  June.  I  will  reserve 
for  another  letter  whatever  is  to  be  said  of 
San  Francisco  and  its  surroundings,  which 
we  shall  have  ample  time  and  opportunity 
to  observe.  Up  to  the  present  time  our 
party  have  been  wonderfully  favored  with 
good  weather,  good  health,  and  freedom  from 
delays  and  other  vexations  of  travel.  I 
think  the  management  of  Mr.  Raymond  and 
his  successor,  Mr.  Harding,  has  been  wise 
and  eminently  satisfactory.  So  far  as  has 
been  possible,  all  our  wants  have  been 
promptly  provided  for,  and  our  highest  com- 
fort promoted.  I  am  reminded  to  say  this 
now,  because  of  the  very  different  experi- 
ences of  other  parties  with  whom  I  happen 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  107 

to  have  come  in  contact  en  route,  and  not 
with  a  desire  to  pat  anybody's  back. 

P.  S. — I  quite  unexpectedly  met  our 
mutual  friend  M.  Bennett,  Jr.,  in  the  dining 
hall  at  the  Palace  an  hour  ago.  It  was  a 
most  agreeable  surprise. 


108  FROM  XEW  EXGLAXD 


YIII. 

The  Califoexia  of  'i9  axd  -SI — The  To- 
'pogrci'phy  of  San  Francisco — Cable  Cars — 
The  Palace  Hotel — A  Drive  Among  the 
Suhurhs — Sunday — The  Chinese  Quarter — 
An  Opium  Den — Disgusting  Situations. 

Sax  Fkaxcisco,  Cal.,  May  28tli. 
I  find  it  difiiciilt  to  realize  that  this  great, 
bustling  city  is  the  California  of  '49.  We 
old  fellows  who  were  boys  when  the  gold 
fever  broke  out,  who  still  remember  how 
our  older  acquaintances  of  that  remote 
period  embarked  on  the  seven-months'  trip 
■^'  'round  the  Horn,"  in  search  of  the  far- 
off  land  of  gold,  have  always  been  in  the 
habit  of  thinking  of  California  as  a  great 
mining  camp,  where  the  chief  industry 
is,  and  ouo^ht  to  be,  dio^o^ino-  for  o-old.     And 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  109 

SO,  when  I  come  to  San  Francisco  and  find 
it  a  commercial  city  like  Boston,  and  hear 
people  say  that  all  there  is  of  interest  to 
tourists  in  California  is  to  be  found  right 
here,  ignoring  the  old  memories,  and  the 
old  experiences,  and  all  that,  it  seems  to  me 
as  if  there  must  be  something  wrong  some- 
where. I  want  to  get  back  into  the  gulches 
and  among  the  foot  hills,  and  dig  a  little 
myself.  It  seems  as  if  there  should  be 
a  good  many  nuggets  in  California  yet,  for 
they  don^t  pretend  to  claim  that  the  State 
has  been  n:iore  than  half  dug  over  by  squat- 
ters and  prospectors.  Whatever  the  pres- 
ent situation,  as  regards  the  importance  of 
mining  interests  in  this  State,  it  is  certain 
that  San  Francisco  was  born  of  the  gold  ex- 
citement of  1S4S  and  18:1:9.  First  a  place  of 
rendezvous  for  fortune  seekers,  it  became 
successively  a  depot  of  supplies,  a  wide- 
awake and  populous  town,  and  on  through 
advancing  stages  until,  as  before  stated,  its 
inhabitants  nuw  affirm  that  it  embodies  all 


110  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

there  is  of  consequence  in  the  whole  state. 
But  let  me  start  again  and  tell  jou  some- 
thing of  the  city  as  I  have  observed  it. 

The  topography  of  San  Francisco  will  be 
well  represented  in  miniature,  if  you  place 
two  soup  tureens  and  live  bowls  bottom  up 
on  your  dining  table,  and  throw  a  table 
cloth  loosely  over  the  whole.  If  your  table 
be  oblong,  let  it  stand  lengthwise  east  and 
west,  and  let  the  tureens  be  placed  side 
by  side,  each  pointing  across  it ;  the  bowls 
may  flank  the  other  dishes  at  their  outsides. 
These  seven  elevations  and  the  surrounding 
surface  will  very  well  represent  the  seven 
hills  and  surrounding  plain  on  which  the 
city  is  situated.  If  you  add  a  particularly 
deep  bowl  near  the  northeast  edge,  to  rep- 
resent Telegraph  Hill,  the  topographic  illu- 
sion will  be  complete.  Some  of  the  longest 
and  most  important  streets,  like  California 
and  Geary  Streets,  run  in  a  straight  line 
from  the  east  edge  of  the  table,  outside 
which  is  the  bay  of  San  Francisco,  over  the 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  \\\ 

soup  tureens  and  bowls  to  the  western  edge, 
which  is  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Many  of  these 
liills  are  so  steep  that  no  vehicle,  except  the 
cable  cars,  can  go  up  or  down  them,  and  the 
grass,  therefore,  literally  grows  in  the 
streets.  And,  by  the  way,  these  cable  cars 
are  the  very  perfection  of  street  railway 
service.  Each  car  is  one  half  open  and  the 
other  half  closed,  l^o  matter  how  heavy 
the  load,  they  go  right  up  and  down  the 
steep  liills  and  across  the  plains  at  a  uniform 
rate  of  speed,  always  under  the  instant  con- 
trol of  the  "  driver."  No  baulky  horses,  no 
carrying  the  passenger  half  a  dozen  blocks 
out  of  his  way  because  the  car  cannot  be 
stopped  on  an  up  grade,  none  of  the  whip- 
]»ing  and  swearing  and  confusion  which 
signalize  the  transit  up  your  Asylum  Hill, 
but  the  simple  shifting  of  a  lever  and  off 
she  scoots  over  tureens  and  bowls  two 
hundred  feet  high,  without  the  slightest 
apparent  effort.  From  the  Palace  Hotel 
these  cable  cars  run  momently  to  every  part 


112  FBOM  XEW  EXGLAXD 

of  the  city,  and  connect  with  steam  cars 
and  steam  ferries  to  all  the  important 
suburbs.  The  route  through  California 
Street  passes  over  the  summit  of  Knob  Hill, 
where  are  located  the  elegant  residences  of 
ex-Governor  Stanford,  General  Colton,  Hon. 
Charles  Crocker,  Mrs.  Mark  Hopkins,  Flood, 
O'Brien,  and  the  other  millionaires  whose 
names  are  familar  in  political  and  commer- 
cial circles.  Their  grounds  are  charmingly 
laid  out  and  cultivated  with  exquisite  taste. 
The  residences  of  all  classes  throughout  the 
city  are  almost  uniformly  of  wood,  with  a 
tendency  to  jig-saw  ornamentation  which  is 
so  universal  as  to  excite  unfavorable  criticism. 
Stone  and  iron,  and  brick  faced  with  mastic, 
are  used  with  good  elfect  in  the  construction 
of  the  most  imposing  edifices  in  the  busi- 
ness part  of  the  city.  I  suppose  that  this 
Palace  Hotel,  at  which  the  Raymond  Party 
are  quartered,  is  one  of  the  chief  wonders 
of  San  Francisco.  It  is  the  largest  hotel  in 
the  world,  as  well  as  the  richest  and  most 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  \\?j 

elegant.  It  covers  an  area  of  ninety-six 
thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty  square  feet, 
and  the  distance  around  it  is  exactly  one- 
quarter  of  a  mile.  There  is  a  promenade 
on  the  roof  of  one-third  of  a  mile.  The 
grand  central  court,  into  which  the  visitor 
in  his  carriage  is  first  ushered,  is  about  one 
hundred  by  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet, 
seven  stories  high  and  roofed  with  glass. 
Ornamental  balconies  run  around  its  four 
sides,  at  each  floor,  on  which  are  growing 
tropical  plants  and  flowering  shrubs,  mak- 
ing the  place  one  of  rare  beauty  and  attrac- 
tiveness. Around  the  ground  promenade 
are  grouped  the  office,  reception  parlors, 
reading-rooms,  breakfast  and  dining-rooms, 
etc.,  with  spacious  communicating  hallways. 
The  rooms  are  mostly  en  suite,  very  large, 
and  handsomely  furnished  at  a  cost  of  more 
than  half  a  million.  The  structure  itself 
cost  six  millions.  Its  exterior  is  also  very 
elegant,  every  window  being  a  bay  window 
on  both  the  Market  and  Montgomery  Street 


114  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

fronts.  Ex-Senator  Sharon  is  the  owner  of 
the  property,  and  it  is  nnder  the  manage- 
ment of  his  nephew,  Alexander  D.  Sharon. 
There  is  a  great  number  of  very  line  stores 
on  Market  Street  and  its  tributary  thorough- 
fares, representing  as  wide  a  range  of  trade 
as  can  be  found  in  Eastern  cities.  Andrew's 
diamond  palace  on  Montgomery  Street,  and 
some  others  that  I  have  noticed,  may  be 
classed  with  the  most  pretentious  of  their 
kind  in  Xew  York  or  Boston. 

A  carriage  drive  tlirougli  Golden  Gate 
Park,  past  the  cemeteries,  and  on  toward 
Point  Lobos  and  its  famous  Seal  Pocks,  has 
familiarized  me  with  about  all  there  is  be- 
tween the  bay  and  the  ocean  worth  men- 
tioning. Xobody  who  comes  to  San  Fran- 
cisco fails  of  visiting  the  Seal  Pocks,  or  rather 
the  beach  and  Cliff  House,  close  by  which 
the  rocks  are  seen.  This  point  on  the 
Pacitic  Coast  may  be  called  the  Coney 
Island  of  California — that  is,  if  we  grant  to 
Santa  Monica  the  other  title,  which  she  has 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  115 

appropriated,  of  tlie  ''Loiiu'  Branch  of  the 
Pacilic.'*  At  the  northern  tei'ininus  of  a 
long  sandy  beach  rises  a  rocky  bluff;  and 
where  the  rock  rises  highest  and  ahnost 
overhangs  the  ocean,  at  an  altitude  of  a 
hundred  feet  or  more  above  it,  they  have 
built  a  handsome  hotel  which  is  called  the 
Cliff  House.  From  its  broad  and  sheltered 
verandas  there  is  an  unobstructed  view  of 
the  coast  for  a  great  distance,  wliile  on  the 
west  the  blue  expanse  of  the  Pacilic  extends 
away  to  the  horizon.  From  three  hundi-ed 
to  live  hundred  ieet  seaward  of  this  Cliff 
House,  and  washed  continually  by  the 
^urging  waves  which  break  under  its  very 
foundations,  are  two  groups  of  rocks,  which 
have  given  the  place  its  celeljrity.  These 
rocks  are  five  in  number ;  the  highest  and 
largest  reaches  an  elevation  of  perhaps 
eighty  feet  at  low  tide;  the  smallest  is 
barelv  seen  above  the  surface  at  hioh  water. 
The  largest  displaces  a  circular  area  of 
water  perhaps  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet 


IIQ  FROM  XEW  EXGLAXD 

in  diameter ;  the  smallest  is  about  as  large 
as  an  old-fashioned  country  school-house. 
These  rocks  are  the  resort  of  hundreds  of 
seals,  which  swarm  and  wriggle  and 
squirm  over  them  continually.  The  first 
sight  of  them  at  a  little  distance  was  most 
diso-usting,  each  individual  rock  strono^ly 
reminding  one  of  an  immense  fragment  of 
cheese  filled  with  squirming  black  maggots. 
The  water  seemed  to  be  alive  with  these 
seals.  They  are  most  expert  swimmers,  and 
are  constantly  climbing  out  of  the  water 
upon  the  rocks,  or  tumbling  oiF  from  the 
rocks  into  the  sea.  It  is  very  amusing  to 
watch  them,  bufi^etted  by  the  waves,  in  their 
patient  efforts  to  get  a  foothold  on  the  slip- 
pery rocks,  and  then  in  their  awkward 
climbings  upward  and  over  the  ledges.  By 
the  aid  of  a  glass  I  could  observe  them  quite 
critically.  They  p'row  to  oTeat  size,  and 
the  largest  appeared  fairly  gray  with  age. 
I  understand  they  attain  a  weight  of  a 
thousand  pounds,  though  none  of  those  I 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  HJ 

~;iw  upun  tlie  rucks  looked  as  if  tliey 
weighed  much  more  than  half  that,  and  the 
average  seemed  to  be  perhaps  one  or  two 
hundred.  The  small  ones  were  playful, 
and  kept  up  an  incessant  barking ;  but  the 
old  fellows  evidently  preferred  to  lie  quietly 
in  the  sunshine,  for  they  would  occasionally 
make  things  very  unpleasant  in  their  neigh- 
borhood when  disturbed  or  approached  by 
others  more  actively  inclined.  I  sat  on  tlie 
veranda  of  the  Clilf  House  for  a  couple  of 
hours  in  the  interested  observance  of  this 
-trange  and  constantly  changing  picture. 
There  is  an  unaccountable  fascination  about 
it,  as  I  understand,  for  everybody  who 
comes  here.  This  beach,  and  the  three  or 
four  liotels  thereon,  with  the  Seal  Rocks, 
constitute  a  sufficient  attraction  to  draw 
about  two  hundred  thousand  visitors  hither 
ever}'  year. 

Sunday  morning  I  attended  service  at  the 
Howard  Presbyterian  Church  on  Mission 
Street,  of  which    Dr.   MuKenzie   is    pastor. 


118  FRO}f  NEW  EXGLAXD 

Being  now  absent  on  his  vacation,  his  pul- 
pit is  supplied  by  Dr.  Stratton,  President 
of  the  University  of  the  Pacific,  a  Methodist 
Theological  Institution.  He  ranks  among 
the  most  eloquent  pulpit  orators  of  the 
State.  In  the  afternoon  I  accidentally  heard 
part  of  a  harangue  from  the  female  exhorter 
of  a  salvation  army  which  paraded  the  streets 
with  drums  and  banners.  Still  later  in  the 
afternoon,  strolling  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
City  Hall,  I  was  attracted  by  the  brogue  of 
an  Irishman  who  was  talking  to  an  audience 
of  a  hundred  or  two  men  and  boys.  Seek- 
ing information  of  the  orator  from  a  passing 
policeman,  I  found  that  it  was  Dennis  Kear- 
ney, he  of  the  "sand  lots."  Of  course  his 
theme  was  politics.  I  have  been  surprised  to 
find  so  much  regard  paid  to  the  proprieties 
of  the  Sabbath  here.  There  certainly  is  less 
profanation  of  holy  time  in  San  Francisco 
than  in  Chicago  ;  a  more  general  suspension 
of  business,  and  a  more  decorous  manner  of 
action  and  speech  from  tliose  who  walk  the 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  119 

pavement  or  lounge  at  places  of  common 
re?ort.  I  should  feel  some  surprise,  too,  in 
seeing  the  women  on  the  streets  dailv  in  seal- 
skin  dohnans  and  fur-lined  cloaks,  and  the 
men  in  heavy  overcoats,  so  near  the  first  of 
June,  if  the  chilly  trade-winds  didn't  cause 
me  to  forget  the  proximity  of  the  summer 
solstice  in  m.y  longings  for  the  substantial 
winter  wraps  which  I  left  in  Hartford.  I 
do  not  like  the  climate  of  San  Francisco,  or 
its  winds. 

And  there  is  one  other  feature  which  I 
must  not  omit — the  Chinese.  I  made  the 
tour  of  Chinatown  last  evening,  in  company 
with  live  other  gentlemen  and  under  the 
protection  of  a  well-known  guide.  Let  me 
give  you  the  names  of  these  gentlemen,  for 
whatever  of  ignominy  or  renown  attaches  to 
the  tour,  I  feel  that  it  should  be  shared  by 
us  individually.  There  was  Mr.  Almy  for 
the  heavy  weight,  ^fr.  Merriam  as  legal 
adviser,  Mr.  Craven  and  Mr.  Bull,  who  were 
selected    on    account    of  their   orood    looks. 


120  FROM  XEW  EXGLAXD 

while  Mr.  Richards  and  myself  were  there 
to  uphold  the  dignity  of  the  occasion. 
Detective  Jackson  intended  a  compliment 
when  he  remarked  at  the  outset  that  there 
was  no  probability  of  our  becoming  any 
worse  for  what  he  was  about  to  show  us  ! 
I  think  we  saw  something  of  every  phase 
of  Chinese  life.  Tlie  Chinese  Quarter  is 
included  within  eight  blocks — four  in  length 
by  two  wide.  It  is  in  the  heart  of  the  city. 
Forty  thousand  Chinamen  and  women  oc- 
cupy these  eight  blocks.  Of  course  they  are 
packed  like  sardines.  We  visited  their 
money  and  stock  exchange,  their  provision 
markets,  drug  stores,  shops,  and  warehouses. 
We  watched  their  native  barber  as  he 
scraped  the  unlathered  face  of  his  customer, 
sitting  bolt  upright  on  a  stool.  With  a 
long,  narrow,  flexible  blade,  the  artist  mowed 
over  every  square  inch  of  surface  from  his 
breast-bone  to  the  back  of  his  head,  digging 
out  his  ears  and  nostrils,  scraping  with  equal 
care  the  bridize  of  his  nose,  his  forehead,  and 


TO    THE  PACIFIC.  121 

every  otlier  spot,  wliether  encumbered  with 
beard  or  not.  ^Ve  drank  tea  and  ate  native 
refreshments  at  Cliin  Lang  Pin's  high-toned 
restaurant,  saw  all  the  nonsense  of  the  Joss 
House,  and  brought  away  therefrom  sundry 
souvenirs  in  the  shape  of  ready-made  pray- 
ers, joss  sticks,  and  other  tomfoolery.  Every 
worshipper  at  this  institution  is  obliged  to 
pay  something,  and  this  is  the  novel  method 
of  assessment :  The  boss  of  the  place  has  a 
number  of  smooth  sticks  about  a  foot  long, 
on  one  end  of  each  of  which  is  a  character 
representing  a  sum  of  money.  He  places 
these  sticks  in  a  large  wooden  spoon-liolder, 
lettered  end  inside,  gives  the  spoon-holder  a 
shake  and  passes  it  around.  Each  worsliip- 
per  picks  out  his  little  stick  and  pays  the 
sum  indicated  on  it.  Tlie  plan  seems  to 
afford  complete  satisfaction,  each  Pigtail 
giving  a  grunt  and  smiling  a  smile  which 
appears  to  indicate  that  he  thinks  he  has 
got  off  a  little  ea^ier  than  his  neighbor.  It 
cost  our  crowd  four  bits  to  2:et  awav  witli 


122  FROM  XEW  EXGLAXD 

tills  part  of  the  entertainment.  We  went 
throngh  the  places  where  these  people  live. 
The  houses  are  not  high,  none  over  three 
stories  above  ground,  but  they  go  down 
indefinitely  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  and 
the  deeper  and  darker  and  more  contracted 
and  airless  the  place,  the  better  the  occu- 
pants seem  to  be  pleased.  The  rooms  aver- 
age about  six  feet  square ;  the  largest  are 
perhaps  eight  by  ten  feet,  and  there  are 
many  below  the  average.  The  rooms  have 
almost  no  furniture.  A  house  will  contain, 
between  its  lowest  sub-cellar  and  roof,  from 
one  hundred  to  tive  hundred  of  these  rooms, 
and  it  is  a  pretty  lonesome  room  that  has 
not  five  or  six  Chinamen  in  it  when  they  are 
all  at  home.  Thus  you  see  it  is  not  very 
difficult  to  account  for  the  five  thousand 
people  who  occupy  each  of  the  eight  blocks 
of  the  Chinese  Quarter. 

But  it  is  in  the  opium  dens  that  they 
pack  them  away  thickest.  These  run  two 
and  three  stories  underoTOund,  and  seem  to 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  12S 

extend  prettv  much  throiio^li  the  entire 
colony.  An  opium  den  contains  perhaps 
thirty  rooms  or  cells  ranged  around  a  long  and 
narrow  court.  Each  cell  has  tiers  of  bunks 
just  wide,  long,  and  high  enough  to  accommo- 
date the  prostrate  form  of  a  man.  Each  is 
furnished  with  a  piece  of  matting,  a  filthy 
pillow  abont  ten  inches  scjuare,  a  small 
lamp,  and  an  opium  pipe  which  looks  like 
a  flute  without  any  keys  and  with  a  porce- 
lain door-knob  attached  near  one  end.  The 
door-knob  part  contains  the  opium,  which 
the  smoker  melts  and  manipulates  until  it 
reaches  the  proper  condition,  when  he  sticks 
the  small  end  of  the  flute  into  his  mouth, 
ifr:nites  the  druo^,  sucks  and  swallows  and 
gasps  alternately,  until  he  finally  passes  off 
into  a  state  of  apparent  stupefaction,  and 
the  attendant  comes  and  removes  the  pipe 
and  lamp.  The  bunks,  with  pipes  and 
other  paraphernalia,  are  rented  by  the  pro- 
prietor of  the  place,  and  there  appears  to  be 
no  lack  of  patrons.     AVe  explored  but  one 


124  FRO^f  XEW  ENGLAND 

of  these  dens,  and  that  was  quite  full. 
The  cells  and  alleys  were  like  dungeons, 
dark,  filthy,  thick  with  opium  smoke,  and 
absolutely  unventilated.  I  do  not  under- 
stand how  the  inmates  manao-e  to  sustain 
life  there.  I  was  well  nigh  suffocated 
simply  in  transit. 

I  don't  know  whether  the  Chinese,  as  a 
class,  in  this  city  are  more  vicious  than 
other  nationalities.  TTe  saw  a  great  many 
tableaux  vivant  representing  every  conceiv- 
able variety  of  evil ;  but  then,  our  guide 
was  instructed  to  show  us  Chinatown,  and 
he  obeyed  orders  without  restrictions.  I 
suppose  that  an  exploration  in  other  quar- 
ters, among  French,  Spanish,  Mexican,  or 
even  American  people,  miglit  reveal  equally 
shocking  and  disgusting  situations.  For 
some  reason  there  seems  to  be  a  cordial  dis- 
like of  the  Chinese  by  all  other  nationalities 
here,  yet  I  do  not  see  how  San  Francisco 
could  o^et  alono'  without  them.  Thev  do 
all  the  menial  work,  the  drudo^ery  of  domes- 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  ^25 

tic  and  business  life,  and  they  do  it  well 
and  cheaply.  They  are  industrious,  orderly, 
mind  their  own  business,  and  are  honest  as 
honesty  goes  among  the  masses.  I  could 
name  a  race  of  people  among  us  for  whom, 
in  my  opinion,  it  will  be  less  tolerable  in 
the  day  of  judgment  than  for  the  heathen 
Chinee. 


126  FROM  NEW  EXGLAND 


IX. 

The  Sundries  of  Sax  Fraxxisco — Memorial 
Day — The  Cemeteries — Some  KofAcl  Mauso- 
leums— Floral  Wonders — California  Jour- 
nalism— The  Sharon  Racket — ^4  Chinese 
Funeral — Suriday  Evening  on  the  Street. 

San  Franxisco,  Cal.,  June  Ist. 
Memorial  Day,  recurring  during  my  stay 
in  this  city,  lias  afforded  an  unanticipated 
opportunity  of  witnessing  several  quite  ad- 
mirable displays.  First,  of  the  people  in 
holiday  attire,  pouring  out  to  observe  or 
participate  in  the  ceremonies  of  honoring 
the  patriotic  dead  ;  next,  the  military  dis- 
play, including  a  parade  of  several  regiments 
of  the  volunteer  militia,  detachments  of  the 
Grand  Army,  veterans  of  the  last  war,  and 
"Sons    of   Veterans "  of  the    war    of  the 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  127 

Revolution,  tlie  war  of  1S12,  and  tlie  Mex- 
ican war;  and  last,  tliougli  chief  in  attrac- 
tiveness to  me,  the  great  wealth  of  flowers 
contributed  for  the  service,  such  as  probably 
no  other  city  in  the  country  could  produce. 
The  military  pageant  was  easily  witnessed 
from  the  Market  Street  balconies  of  the 
Palace  Hotel,  headquarters  of  the  com- 
manders having  been  established  here,  and 
the  line  forming  on  the  streets  centering  at 
this  point.  The  immense  court  of  the  hotel 
was  tilled  with  distinguished  visitors,  and 
the  seven  tiers  of  balconies  above  with 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  while  the  military 
band  in  the  courtyard  rehearsed  dirges  and 
marches  until  ten  o'clock,  when  the  great 
procession  moved.  The  line  of  march  was 
not  long,  and  when  Tan  Xess  xVvenue  was 
reached  the  military  were  disbanded,  the 
Grand  Army  boys  proceeding  directly  to 
the  cemeteries  by  the  cable  cars  on  Geary, 
Haight,  and  California  Streets,  followed  by 
wau'on-loads  of  tiowers  in  various  designs, 


128  FROM  NEW  EXGLAXD 

as  well  as  loose.  Among  the  designs  I 
noticed  an  immense  mounted  cannon  com- 
posed entirely  of  great  Avbite  calla  lilies  ;  a 
square  shaft  ten  feet  high  and  of  propor- 
tionate size,  made  up  of  monster  white  car- 
nations, with  a  wreath  of  pansies  inlaid 
upon  each  of  the  four  sides,  and  a  cluster 
of  golden  buds,  which  I  did  not  recognize, 
at  the  apex;  a  brace  of  cavalry  swords 
crossed,  made  of  solid  lilies  of  the  valley, 
with  their  golden  handles  and  guards 
formed  of  velvety  dwarf  marigolds,  the 
whole  resting  on  a  bank  of  royal  purple 
pansies,  studded  with  little  stars  of  orange 
blossoms,  which  were  charmingly  shaded 
down  to  the  purple  by  a  peculiar  arrange- 
ment of  mignonette.  Some  of  the  heavy 
designs,  like  shields  and  anchors,  were  made 
up  of  solid  rose-buds  in  grades  of  size  and 
shade  which  would  be  altogether  impossible 
except  in  a  region  of  roses  like  this.  There 
were  cut  flowers  in  bouquet  and  loose, 
which   I    cannot   name,   and   in    profusion 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  129 

which    required    altogether    several     large 
teams  to  move  tliem  to  the  cemeteries. 

About  three  miles  from  this  hotel,  near 
the  Avestern  limit  of  the  city,  stands  "Lone 
Mountain,"  a  bold,  bare  eminence  per- 
haps six  hundred  feet  above  the  surround- 
ing level.  Upon  its  summit,  which  can  be 
seen  from  all  directions  for  many  miles,  has 
been  erected  an  immense  cross,  wdiich  has 
no  significance  except  to  indicate  that  the 
ownership  vests  in  the  holy  Catholic  Church. 
The  burial  grounds  of  the  city  cluster 
about  this  mountain.  They  are  five  in 
number,  and  all  quite  large.  As  I  have 
perhaps  made  sufficient  allusion  to  these  in 
a  ]>revious  letter,  I  will  only  say  here  that 
the  various  grounds  had,  during  the  pre- 
ceding tw^o  or  three  days,  been  trimmed  up 
and  otherwise  placed  in  a  state  of  preparation 
for  these  services,  and  that  they  presented  a 
more  attractive  appearance  than  when  I  saw 
them  the  preceding  Sunday.  The  Catholic 
Cemetery  contains  the  best  as  well  as  the 

9*^ 


130  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

poorest  monuments.  In  it  is  the  magnifi- 
cent mausoleum  of  the  millionaire  O'Brien, 
costing  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars ;  also  the  Sharon  monument  and 
enclosure,  together  with  a  score  or  more  of 
chapels,  monuments,  and  shrines,  which  are 
very  beautiful  and  very  costly.  Amid  all 
and  everywhere  are  the  always  abounding 
and  ever  bloomino^  fioral  wonders  which 
make  beautiful  alike  the  poorest  sepulchres 
of  the  common  herd  and  the  silent  palaces 
of  the  princely  dead.  I  see  by  the  papers 
that  over  tliree  thousand  bouquets  and  fioral 
designs  were  contributed  and  placed  upon 
soldiers'  graves  in  the  various  cemeteries 
during  the  impressive  ceremonies  of  Friday. 
It  was  such  an  oflfering  as  could  be  made  by 
no  other  city  in  the  land. 

TTe  have  now  been  in  San  Francisco  con- 
siderably more  than  a  week,  and  have  prob- 
ably seen  pretty  much  everything  of  in- 
terest here.  I  have  visited  the  beautiful 
Golden  Gate  Park  no  less  than  three  times. 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  131 

and  liave  found  in  its  conservatory,  or  else- 
where, each  time  increased  reason  for  ad- 
miration. It  is  magnificent  in  tlie  variety 
and  extent  of  its  surface  and  scenery,  and  in 
the  perfection  of  its  appointments.  The 
old  church  of  the  Dolores  Mission,  three 
hundred  years  old,  is  an  object  of  consider- 
able curiosity.  So  is  the  new  City  Hall, 
which  has  been  in  course  of  construction  for 
many  years,  and  is  yet  unfinished  because  of 
lack  of  funds.  And  the  Jesuit  College,  and 
the  Pavilion,  and  the  Mint — -and  the  whole 
city.  Tan  Xess  Avenue  is  the  finest  street, 
and  the  "  Western  Addition  "  the  finest  sec- 
tion of  the  city.  One  of  the  prettiest  drives 
is  through  the  Park  and 

"  Over  the  hills  to  the  poor-house," 
winding  as  it  does  among  the  foot-hills  of 
"  The  Twin  Peaks,"  and  upon  various  com- 
manding eminences.  Inspiration  Point, 
just  south  of  the  Mission,  is  the  most  ad- 
wantageous  position  for  a  general  view  of 
the   citv  and   the  bay.     I  saw   a  a'ano-    of 


1^2  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

twenty  men  and  boys  digging  potatoes  on 
the  premises  of  the  ahns-house  a  day  or  two 
since.  It  is  the  first  time  I  have  seen  pota- 
toes ha^' vested  in  May. 

Members  of  our  party  who  went  into  the 
Yosemite  Yalley  are  now  arriving  at  the 
Palace.  They  represent  the  roads  as  very 
bad,  and  the  snow  so  deep  as  to  have  pre- 
vented their  visiting  some  desired  points, 
particularly  the  big  tree  where  it  is  said  a 
stage  can  be  driven  through  a  cavity  in  the 
trunk.  But  the  scenery  generally  is  the 
same  in  grandeur  and  sublimity  that  it  has 
so  often  been  pictured.  The  trip  into  and 
out  of  the  valley  was  attended  with  much 
hardship  and  hazard,  and  individual  mem- 
bers of  the  party  will  carry  weary  limbs 
and  "  cricky  "  sides  for  some  days  yet.  But 
I  do  not  hear  that  anybody  regrets  the 
experience. 

You  may  be  interested  to  learn  what  are 
my  impressions  of  San  Francisco  journalism. 
As  you  already  know,  there  are  six  daily 


TO    THE   FACIFIC.  X33 

papers  in  the  city,  four  morning  and  two 
evening.  The  morning  papers  also  print 
Sunday  editions.  In  circulation  and  influ- 
ence the  dailies  all  appear  to  be  on  an  excel- 
lent footing,  and  they  easily  hold  the  field 
against  all  attempted  competition.  The 
Chronicle  occupies  a  leading  position  among 
its  contemporaries.  The  Call,  The  Alia,  The 
Examiner,  The  Post,  and  The  Bulletin^  follow- 
ing in  about  the  order  indicated.  The  first 
two  and  last  two  are  Republican  in  politics, 
The  Examiner  Democratic,  and  The  Alta 
"  independent " — that  is,  reserving  the  priv- 
ilege of  leaning  toward  the  side  which  can 
offer  strongest  inducements.  The  dailies 
publish  double  sheets  on  Sunday,  and  also 
on  Tuesday — though  why  Tuesday  any 
more  than  any  other  secular  day  I  have  not 
been  able  to  discover.  It  is  a  noticeable 
feature  of  San  Francisco  journalism  that 
the  papers  by  common  consent  go  ahead 
and  print  the  news,  leaving  the  bickerings 
and  bitterness  and  brag  for  somebody  else 


134  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

to  indulge  in.  There  is  less  personality  in 
The  Chronicle^  for  instance,  than  one  would 
expect  to  iind  in  a  journal  of  its  scope,  and 
especially  when  the  nationality  and  chara^c- 
teristics  of  its  proprietor  are  taken  into  con- 
sideration. I  have  heard  no  estimate  of 
the  respective  circulation  of  these  papers, 
further  than  that,  after  The  Chronicle^  they 
print  editions  not  widely  apart  in  numbers. 
There  is  an  English-speaking  population  of 
more  than  two  hundred  thousand  in  San 
Francisco,  which  fact  alone  warrants  the 
belief  that  the  apparent  prosperity  of  these 
six  dailies  is  also  real  and  permanent.  I 
notice  that  while  advertising  is  extensively 
done  in  all  the  papers,  scarcely  any  large 
and  black  type  is  used.  As  a  consequence, 
the  papers  have  a  neat  and  handsome 
appearance,  and  the  general  effect  is  really 
to  render  all  advertisements  more  attractive 
than  they  could  be  amid  a  wilderness  of  cuts 
and  heavy  display  lines.  San  Francisco 
may  be  said  to  be  thoroughly  metropolitan 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  135 

in  its  newspapers  ;  it  prodnces  as  good  as 
the  best. 

And  this  leads  me  to  speak  of  the  disgrace- 
ful '*  Sharon  vs.  Sharon  "  trial  now  occupying 
the  attention  of  the  superior  conrt  in  this 
city,  and  which  furnishes  the  papers  with 
three  or  four  columns  of  sensational  reading 
every  day.  The  suit  is  brought  by  a  Miss 
Hill  for  breach  of  alleged  promise  of  mar- 
riage. Sharon,  the  defendant,  is  sixty  years 
old,  a  widower,  and  by  his  own  confession 
a  libertine  of  the  most  accomplished  sort. 
The  situation  divulged  by  evidence  is  simyjly 
infamous.  But  Sharon  is  rich  in  uncounted 
millions,  and  I  suppose  the  Avoman  thinks 
she  can  o-et  most  money  throutj;h  the  courts. 
She  evidently  has  no  modesty  to  be  shocked 
by  the  appalling  disclosures  of  her  para- 
mour. San  Francisco's  history  abounds  in 
kindred  episodes,  which  are  within  the 
memory  of  all  of  us.  Among  them  tliis 
Sharon  scandal  will  scarcely  remain  a  seven- 
days'  wonder. 


136  FROM  NEW  EKGLAXD 

I  have  attended  divine  service  to-daj  at 
the  church  of  Dr.  Stone — formerly  of  Mid- 
dletown,  Conn.,  as  I  perhaps  do  not  need  to 
remind  jou.  The  doctor  is  very  old  and 
rarely  officiates.  His  colleague,  Dr.  Bar- 
rows, is  away  on  his  vacation,  and  we  lis- 
tened to  a  stranger.  This  is  the  finest 
church  edifice  in  the  city  and  as  near  perfec- 
tion in  its  interior  arrangement  as  any 
audience  room  I  have  ever  seen.  There 
have  been  two  military  funerals  here  to-day, 
the  first  largely  attended  by  military  men 
and  conducted  with  quite  imposing  ceremo- 
nies. A  Chinese  funeral  was  also  solemn- 
ized this  morning.  It  consisted,  so  far  as 
public  demonstration  w^as  concerned,  in  one 
wagon-load  of  corpse  and  two  wagon-loads 
of  refreshments  for  ditto.  The  refreshments 
were  principally  baked  meats,  among  which 
what  looked  like  roast  goose  and  roast  pig 
were  prominent.  The  mourners  were  con- 
spicuous by  their  absence.  A  Chinese  men- 
ial at  the  Palace  tells  me  that  the  mourning 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  ^^gy 

is  all  done  at  the  Joss  House.  The  relatives 
take  no  active  part  in  that.  The  same 
menial  volunteers  further  information  to  the 
effect  that  the  souls  of  Chinamen  all  have  to 
go  to  heaven  bv  way  of  China ;  that  it  takes 
about  two  years  to  reach  their  destination  by 
that  route,  and  that  they  require  to  be  well 
fed  on  the  journey.  Hence  the  funeral 
baked  meats  and  the  goose  and  the  succulent 

pig- 
It   is    Sunday  evening   and   nearly   nine 

o'clock  as  I  write  this  paragraph.  Yet  it  is 
not  the  Xew  England  Sunday.  The  din 
which  comes  to  my  ears  from  the  street 
makes  me  feel  as  if  I  ought  to  get  out  and  see 
the  circus  coming  into  town.  But  it  isn't  the 
circus.  It  is  only  the  orchestra  on  the  bal- 
cony of  the  Market  Street  Theater,  a  block 
away ;  and  the  gang  of  hoodlums  with  the 
drums  are  merely  stray  waifs  from  the  tar- 
flats  who  have  unconsciously  wandered  out- 
side the  bailiwick.  I  look  out  into  the  glare 
of  the  electric  lij^hts  which  extend  west  as 


138  FROM  NEW  EX  GLAND 

far  as  I  can  see,  and  observe  the  sidewalks 
crowded  with  pedestrians  going  and  return- 
ing nobody  can  tell  whither;  while  scores 
of  cable-cars  are  gliding  noiselessly  and  con- 
stantly, bearing  their  burdens  of  hunianity 
to  and  from  the  same  nameless  destination. 
The  sound  and  sio;ht  are  not  familiar  or 
pleasing,  and  somehow^  I  want  to  get  away 
from  and  forget  them  ;  so  I  will  stop  writ- 
ing and  retire  within  the  sacred  privacy  of 
my  inner  chamber  to  read  awhile  and  then 
woo  balmy  sleep.     Good  night. 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  130 


X. 

Menlo  Paek  and  the  Sa2sta  Claea  Yalley 
— Monterey  and  the  Hotel  del  Monte — Gov. 
StanfoixVs  Home  and  Horses — Some  Califor- 
nia Landscapes — The  Picturesque  City — His- 
toric Adobes — An  Interestiny  Drive. 

Hotel  Del  Mo^^te,         ) 
MoxTEREY,  Cal.,  June  4th.  { 

I  confess  to  great  reluctance  in  attempting 
to  write  tins  letter.  It  should  be  one  of 
exceeding  interest,  yet  the  way  to  make  it 
so  does  not  appear  entirely  plain  before  me. 
I  feel  as  one  might  be  supposed  to  who  has 
misappropriated  or  squandered  his  posses- 
sions and  finds  himself  without  any  reserve 
in  the  hour  of  need.  I  liave  used  up  all  my 
superlatives  where  occasion  appeared  to 
demand   them,  and  to  rnv  dismav  the  real 


140  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

necessity  has  but  just  put  in  an  appearance. 
I  was  stupid  enough  to  go  into  ecstasies  over 
the  situation  at  Sierra  Madre  Yilla,  where 
they  have  flower  gardens  by  the  acre  and 
roses  which  measure  five  inches  in  diameter. 
Alas  for  my  innocence !  And  when  this  val- 
ley of  the  Santa  Clara  comes  up  for  notice, 
and  they  show  me  landscape  gardening  as  a 
fine  art,  measuring  its  extent  in  square 
miles,  the  size  of  its  rose  trees  by  the  cord, 
and  its  roses  so  large  that  they  have  to  be 
cut  before  they  can  be  worked  into  bouquets, 
there  are  no  figures  left  —  nothing  but  a 
few  "  dittos"  or  a  box  or  two  of  turned  com- 
mas. This  hotel  from  which  I  write  stands 
in  the  midst  of  a  park  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-six  acres,  every  inch  of  which  is 
under  the  personal  supervision  of  the  most 
accomplished  landscape  gardener  in  the 
world.  It  is  simply  a  miracle  of  beauty. 
Everything  that  refined  taste  can  suggest, 
or  that  wealth,  aided  by  nature  and  art,  can 
secure,  is  here  to  add  to  the  charms  of  this 


TO    THE  PACIFIC.  \^\ 

delightful  spot.  The  beautiful  bay  of  Mon- 
terey washes  its  northern  border  ;  lofty  pines 
and  spreading  oaks,  and  graceful  palms,  and 
sweet-scented  buckeyes,  and  the  brilliant 
pepper  tree,  give  grateful  shade  to  walk  and 
lawn  ;  the  hotel,  w^ith  its  hundred  gables  and 
cornices  and  verandas,  rises  in  symmetrical 
proportions  amid  an  ocean  of  flowers,  which 
cluster  and  climb  and  revel  over  its  waljs 
and  through  its  lattices,  and  up  to  its  very 
eaves ;  Avhile  the  wide-spreading  surface  of 
tlie  great  park  is  like  a  velvet  carpet  on 
which  are  worked  in  colors  of  surpassing 
richness  such  designs  as  best  please  the  eye, 
and  are  in  most  perfect  harmony  with  their 
respective  surroundings.  But,  before  I  at- 
tempt any  description  of  this  particular 
locality,  you  should  know  something  of  the 
trip  hither  and  its  incidents. 

The  party  were  to  leave  San  Francisco 
for  ]\Ionterey,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
miles  distant,  at  four  o'clock  Monday 
afternoon.      Six   gentlemen    of   the   party, 


\].2  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

including  your  correspondent,  left  bj  the 
morning  train,  stopping  over  for  a  few  hours 
at  Menlo  Park,  twenty-six  miles  from  San 
Francisco,  and  a  locality  of  considerable 
repute,  as  you  will  see.  Menlo  Park  re- 
ceived its  name  from  one  of  its  pioneer 
settlers,  a  Doctor  Oliver,  wlio  came  from 
Ireland,  where  he  owned  a  tract  of  land 
called  by  the  same  name.  The  town  has 
among  its  inhabitants  no  less  than  twenty- 
two  millionaires,  including  ex-Governor 
Stanford,  J.  C.  Flood,  Mrs.  Mark  Hopkins, 
Edgar  Mills,  the  banker,  Mrs.  F.  D.  Ather- 
ton,  Mrs.  T.  H.  Selby,  Hon.  C.  M.  Felton, 
J.  A.  Donohue,  the  banker  of  San  Fran- 
cisco and  Xew  York,  John  T.  r)oyle,  Mrs. 
Joseph  McDonald,  and  Mrs.  J.  B.  Coleman, 
both  among  the  O'Brien  heirs.  Judge  H.  P. 
Oohn,  Colonel  Eyers,  the  broker  of  San 
Francisco,  Hon.  E.  C.  Johnson,  and  others 
whose  names  are  less  familiar.  Each  of 
these  is  the  owner  of  a  country  seat,  and 
the  great  number  and  extent  of  these  pal- 


TO    THE  PACIFIC.  I43 

aces  and  grounds  giv^e  to  Menlo  Park  an 
exceptionally  attractive  appearance  and  a 
wide  reputation.  The  finest  residence 
among  them  all  is  that  of  J.  C.  Flood.  As 
the  entrance  to  his  grounds  was  closed,  we 
could  not  approach  the  house  nearer  than 
the  street,  half  a  mile  from  the  structure 
itself.  As  it  towered  in  the  distance,  above 
the  surrounding  trees,  it  had  the  appearance 
of  a  large  public  institution,  being  painted 
white  in  resemblance  to  marble,  and  having 
quite  an  extensive  dome  and  cupola.  The 
grounds  are  said  to  be  very  handsomely 
laid  out  and  cultivated.  We  were  able  to 
drive  through  the  park  and  ranch  of  Gov- 
ernor Stanford,  which  is  probably  the  larg- 
est of  any,  containing  six  thousand  acres. 
It  is  impossible  to  convey  any  proper  idea  of 
the  elegance  of  the  private  grounds  of  these 
California  millionaires.  It  is  like  the  ele- 
gance of  Saratoga,  except  that  the  climate 
and  soil  of  this  valley  render  the  possibil- 
ities here  o:i*eater  than  at  the  East.     There  is 


144  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

the  same  wealth  of  flowers  everywhere,  and 
the  grand  old  trees  with  the  clinging  moss, 
and  whatever  special  charm  the  taste  of  the 
owner  or  his  gardener  can  devise.  The  Gover- 
nor has  for  a  year  or  two  past  been  beautify- 
ing a  plat  of  five  hundred  acres,  near  his  pres- 
ent residence,  with  a  view  to  erecting  a  new 
and  more  magnificent  home.  The  recent 
deatli  of  his  only  son  has,  however,  deter- 
mined him  to  change  his  plans.  The  son 
was  greatly  beloved,  and  is  said  to  have 
been  a  most  worthy  and  accomplished  young 
man.  Governor  Stanford  has  now  detei*- 
mined  to  erect  a  free  educational  institute 
for  young  men  on  the  site  of  his  proposed 
residence,  and  to  maintain  it  as  a  memorial 
of  his  son.  We  visited  the  immense  stables 
of  the  Governor,  where  lie  keeps  six  hun- 
dred and  eighty  of  his  horses.  They  are 
probably  the  finest  and  most  costly  collec- 
tion in  the  country.  Among  them  is  the 
stallion  Electioneer,  for  which  he  has  re- 
fused   repeated    ofiers    of    $100,000.     We 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  145 

saw  also  six  other  stallions  of  local  note, 
which  cost  their  owner  respectively  S40,U00, 
§36,000,  three  $30,000  each,  and  one  $2J:,000. 
There  were  over  a  hundred  fine  thoron^h- 
bred  yearling  and  two  years  old  colts,  neither 
of  which  could  be  bought  for  a  thousand 
dollars.  I  know  men  in  Hartford  who 
would  give  big  money  to  go  through  these 
barns  and  talk  horse  with  Major  Rathbun, 
the  accomplished  head  of  the  establishment 
and  the  trusted  lieutenant  of  Governor 
Stanford.  By  the  way,  this  is  the  identical 
Major  Eathbun  who  was  in  the  tlieater  box 
with  President  Lincoln  when  the  latter  was 
assassinated.  The  half  day  spent  in  sight- 
seeing at  Menlo  Park  gave  me  a  better  idea 
of  the  homes  of  the  wealthy  in  this  part  of 
the  country  than  I  have  ever  had.  Many 
of  them  maintain  establishments  also  in 
San  Francisco,  like  Stoneman,  and  Flood, 
and  Hopkins,  and  Atherton,  and  others, 
dividing  their  time  between  city  and  country 
without  regard  to  season. 
10  ' 


146  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

At  half  past  four  we  joined  our  friends  on 
the  "  Daisy  train  "  to  Monterey.  The  ride 
of  a  hundred  miles  through  the  lovely  Santa 
Clara  Yalley,  was  one  of  great  attractive- 
ness. Fields  of  barley  and  other  grains 
succeeded  vineyards  almost  the  entire  dis- 
tance. In  the  valley  proper,  which  aver- 
ages about  twenty  miles  wide,  the  soil  is 
black,  and  deep,  and  rich.  "Wherever  cov- 
ered with  crops  the  verdure  is  of  a  very 
dark  green,  as  is  also  the  foliage  of  the 
trees.  The  mountains  on  either  side  rise 
gradually,  and  their  slopes  present  a  mag- 
nificent picture,  the  shades  of  green  on 
crest  and  gorge  contrasting  harmoniously 
with  the  tints  imparted  by  the  many-col- 
ored wild-flowers  growing  everywhere.  If 
we  had  not  become  so  accustomed  to  these 
marvelous  landscapes,  and  should  see  a 
faithful  painting  of  either  of  a  thousand 
views  which  have  to-day  passed  under  our 
notice,  we  should  doubtless  declare  the  cob 
oring  extravagant.     A  California  landscape, 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  147 

at  this  season  certainly,  is  warm  and  bright, 
and  many-hued,  and  intoxicatingly  beauti- 
ful. Without  the  faintest  suspicion  of 
fatigue  we  rounded  the  shore  of  the  Bay  of 
Monterey  at  half  past  seven,  and  before 
dark  were  in  our  respective  rooms  at  the 
Hotel  del  Monte,  the  cleanest,  sweetest, 
most  homelike,  and  thus  the  most  heavenly 
place  of  refuge  that  it  has  been  our  good 
or  ill  fortune  to  encounter  during  the  pro- 
gress of  this  trip.  It  is  an  immense  estab- 
lishment, but  evidently  under  good  manage- 
ment. Unlike  the  seaside  resorts  of  the 
East,  this  is  open  the  year  round,  its  attrac- 
tions within  and  without  being  the  same 
in  January  as  in  July.  The  hotel  is  within  . 
sound  of  the  ocean  surf,  and  but  a  few  steps 
from  the  beach  of  Monterey  Bay.  It  has 
a  fine  bathing  pavilion,  where  are  four 
immense  tanks,  in  each  of  which  the  water 
is  of  different  temperature,  and  the  leather 
can  take  liis  clioice.  In  the  pavilion  are 
more   than    two    hundred    dressing-rooms, 


148  FROM  X}:W  ENGLAXD 

one-half  of  which  are  for  ladies,  each  being 
also  provided  with  fresh-water  shower  baths. 
The  fine  sandy  beach  outside  is  utilized  bv 
swimmers  who  prefer  the  open  sea  and  long 
distances.  The  park  surrounding  the  Del 
Monte  has,  probably,  no  equal  in  this 
country,  if  in  any  country,  for  the  extent 
and  variety  of  its  natural  and  artificial 
adornments,  in  the  way  of  banks,  and  trees, 
and  flowers,  and  singing  birds,  and  rare 
plants,  its  aviary,  and  fountains,  and  club 
house,  its  shady  nooks,  its  "  maze,"  its  lawns 
for  croquet  and  tennis,  its  bicycle  runs, — 
its  everything  that  can  minister  to  the  com- 
fort or  the  enjoyment  of  sojourners  within 
its  delightful  area.  The  house  itself  is  very 
attractive.  It  is  of  ornamental  Gothic 
architecture,  can  easily  accommodate  five 
hundred  guests,  and  is  handsomely  furnished. 
It  has  the  special  merits  of  thorough  clean- 
liness, an  excellent  table,  and  the  best  of 
beds.  The  very  atmosphere  of  the  house 
and  all  its  surroundincrs  invites  to  luxurious 


TO    THE    PACIFIC.  I49 

repose.  Unlike  San  Francisco,  the  climate 
is  delicious,  the  air  pure  and  dry,  and  not 
subject  to  the  daily  winds  which  prevail 
higher  up  the  coast. 

Monterey,  within  which  municipality  this 
property  is  situate,  lies  a  mile  away,  at  the 
southern  horn  of  the  crescent  which  is  out- 
lined by  the  coast  of  the  bay  of  the  same 
name ;  Santa  Cruz  lying  at  the  northern 
extremity.  The  old  town  is  most  pictur- 
esquely placed,  and  the  selection  of  the  site 
certainly  reflects  much  credit  upon  the  good 
taste  of  the  Jesuit  Father  who  established 
here  in  1770  the  second  of  the  Franciscan 
Missions  founded  in  this  State.  There  is 
not  much  beyond  its  lovely  site  to  commend 
Monterey  to  the  notice  of  the  modern  tour- 
ist, except  its  history, — and  that  does  not 
extend  far  enough  back  to  make  it  interest- 
ing to  one  so  recently  from  Santa  Fe,  a  city 
of  about  three  times  its  age,  and  infinitely 
ahead  of  it  in  those  architectural  absurdities 
which  make  old  American  towns  interest- 


150  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

ing.  The  few  remaining  adobe  houses  in 
Monterey  should  have  a  history.  They  are 
the  Barracks,  the  Fort,  the  Custom  House, 
the  Catholic  Church,  the  Convent,  and  half 
a  dozen  others.  We  stood  half  an  hour  or 
more  taking  on  and  airing  our  familiarity 
with  ancient  American  history,  in  front 
of  what  had  been  pointed  out  to  us  as  the 
Barracks,  but  which  turned  out  to  be  only 
an  old  Mexican  boarding-house.  It  is  quite 
essential,  in  looking  up  antiquities  in  Mon- 
terey, that  your  information  be  gathered 
from  a  reliable  source.  The  old  Custom 
House  is  the  most  conspicuous  of  all  these 
historic  edifices.  It  is  well  preserved,  and 
still  has,  pointing  skyward  from  its  north- 
ern gable,  the  original  flag-staff  from  which 
floated  the  first  American  fiag  that  was 
hoisted  in  California  after  its  acquisition  b}' 
the  United  States  Government. 

There  are  delightful  drives  from  the  Hotel 
del  Monte  in  various  directions,  but  the 
most   interestins:    is   that  which   takes  the 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  \^\ 

tourist  through  Monterey  and  into  Pacific 
Grove,  skirting  the  ocean  from  Shell  Beacli 
to  Pebble  Beach,  over  the  eighteen  or 
twenty  miles  of  road  lying  within  the  Hotel 
Company's  private  grounds.  Along  this 
coast  are  found  the  beautiful  abalone  and 
other  sea  shells,  in  great  variety  of  form  and 
color.  Many  of  us  have  spent  hours  in 
searching  for  the  most  beautiful  specimens, 
and  in  looking  for  the  rare  "  lucky  stone  " 
of  Pebble  Beach.  There  are  several  barrels 
of  these  shells  now  in  possession  of  our  party, 
most  of  which  will  probably  have  to  be 
left  when  the  time  of  our  final  departure 
comes.  There  are  seal  rocks  here,  also, 
though  not  harboring  as  large  a  colony  of 
seals  as  those  at  the  Cliif  House  opposite 
San  Francisco.  The  moss-hung  oaks  and 
cedars,  which  are  seen  at  several  points  on 
the  road,  constitute  objects  of  much  inter- 
est ;  so  do  the  banks  of  wild-flowers  which 
are  sure  to  present  themselves  wherever 
the  rich  loam  shows  a  little  sand  or  clav. 


152  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

We  expect  to  dwell  here,  delightedly, 
until  Saturday,  June  seventh.  Then  we 
shall  return  to  San  Francisco,  and  make 
our  ultimate  exit  from  that  point.  If, 
as  anticipated,  I  conclude  to  take  in  Santa 
Cruz  and  San  Jose  during  the  present 
week,  it  may  give  occasion  for  another  letter 
before  we  leave  California. 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  153 


XL 

A      LOXG-TO-BE-REMEMBERED     WEEK  —  Fare- 

ivell  to  Del  Monie  and  Monterey — A  Day  at 
Santa  Cruz — Some  Bvj^  Big  Trees — An  Old 
Tannery — San   Jose — Squinting   Eastward. 

Palace  Hotel,  ] 

San  Francisco,  Cal.,  June  8tli.  f 

The  phenomenon  of  a  rainy  Sunday  in  a 
California  summer  kindly  interferes  with  an 
engagement  which.  I  made  last  evening  to 
attend  church  to-day  with  a  friend.  I  deem 
the  interference  kindly  because  the  morning 
finds  me  thoroughly  tired  by  the  unusual 
activities  of  the  last  two  days  ;  and,  much  as 
I  should  enjoy  an  hour  with  Doctor  Stone, 
the  rest  and  retirement  of  my  own  room  will 
be  better  for  me  physically,  though  morally 
and  intellectually  I  chance  to  be  the  loser. 


154  FROM  NEW  EX  GLAND 

We  are  here  for  a  farewell  look  at  San  Fran- 
cisco and  the  Pacific  Coast,  for  within  a  day 
or  two  the  Raymond  Party  will  face  and  for- 
ward march  toward  home.  A  long-to-be- 
remembered  week  have  we  spent  at  the 
Hotel  del  Monte,  and  amid  the  attractions 
of  which  it  is  the  hub  and  center.  I  have 
spoken  well  of  del  Monte.  The  place  fnlly 
deserves  such  mention.  I  rather  like,  too, 
the  quiet  old  town  of  Monterej^,  and  find 
that  there  is  much  about  it  after  all  to  fas- 
cinate a  person  who  has  plenty  of  time  to 
look  it  over  and  mouse  among  its  antiquities. 
The  town  was  evidently  once  a  place  of  con- 
siderable imj)ortance.  Its  numerous  streets 
are  now  scarcely  more  than  relics  of  former 
greatness,  for  many  of  them  are  grass-grown 
and  bordered  by  ruins  of  what  w^ere  once 
the  habitations  and  places  of  business  of 
generations  long  since  gone  the  way  of  all 
flesh.  Mounds  of  earth  in  several  localities 
only  remain  of  what  may  have  been  preten- 
tious adobes  a  century  ago ;    and   the  old 


[TO   THE  PACIFIC.  155 

Main  Street,  now  scarcely  better  than  a 
cow-patli,  lias  but  an  occasional  building 
and  a  few  mnd-crowned  and  moss-grown 
corrals,  to  mark  the  tlioroughfare  which 
was  doubtless  the  center  of  population  and 
traffic  in  the  palmy  days  of  old  Spanish 
rule.  What  little  remained  of  business 
activity  or  of  population,  has  gravitated 
nearer  the  beach,  and  there  is  small  hope 
that  the  deserted  district  higher  up  the 
pleasant  acclivity  will  ever  be  reclaimed. 

Monterey  has  its  Chinese  Quarter,  which, 
by  the  way,  should  never  be  visited  by  the 
tourist  except  on  a  full  stomach.  The  sole 
industry  of  the  Quarter  consists  in  drying 
squid,  or  "  devil  fisli,"  for  exportation  to- 
China.  The  atmosphere  is  abominable.  It 
furnislies  a  strong  argument  that  "the  Chi- 
nese should  go."  No  other  community 
makes  merchandise  of  so  foul  and  stinking  a 
product  as  dried  squid. 

I  found  a  genius  at  Monterey,  in  the  per- 
son of  Mr.  T.  G.  Lambert,  a  notary  public^ 


156  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

justice  of  the  peace,  and  lumber  merchant. 
He  lives  in  the  old  Custom  House,  one  of  the 
historic  adobes  of  the  cit  v.  His  wife  runs  a 
shell  store,  and  does  a  thriving  trade  with 
the  del  Monte's  guests.  You  see  he  has  an 
eye  for  the  main  chance;  that  is  because  he 
is  a  Massachusetts  Yankee.  He  has  been  on 
this  coast  thirtj-eiglit  years.  He  is  a  Blaine 
man  all  through.  He  paid  fifty-eight  dol- 
lars into  the  State  treasury  yesterday  for 
knocking  down  an  Irishman  who  said  Blaine 
was  a  d — d  rascal.  He  paid  the  money 
cheerfullv ;  and  is  now  lookino;  for  further 
opportunities  of  the  same  sort.  I  like  his 
earnestness,  but  cannot  commend  his  method 
of  defending  political  friends. 

I  am  under  obligation  to  Mr.  Harding,  the 
obliging  manager  of  the  party,  for  a  very 
agreeable  drive  in  his  private  carriage  dur- 
ing the  afternoon  of  Friday.  Mr.  Harding 
has  spent  a  large  part  of  the  past  year  at  the 
Hotel  del  Monte,  and  is  familiar  with  all 
points  of  interest  in  the  vicinity.     We  visi- 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  \^'J 

ted  the  Liglitliouse,  all  the  Beaches  on  the 
ocean  side,  Cypress  Point,  Cape  Horn,  the 
Reservoir,  Pacific  Grove  Eetreat  and  Camp 
Ground,  Carmel  Mission  Church,  drove 
through  all  the  streets  of  old  Monterey  and 
Chinatown,  and  to  the  old  and  new  Ceme- 
teries of  the  city.  Of  course  we  observed 
many  objects  of  interest  which  had  been 
unheeded  in  our  previous  ride  with  a  hire- 
ling driver.  The  managers  of  these  Ray- 
mond Parties  seem  to  be  constantly  on  the 
alert  for  opportunities,  not  on  the  itineraries, 
to  increase  the  comforts  and  enjoyments  of 
their  tourists.  How  Avell  they  succeed  is 
illustrated  in  the  frerjuent  graceful  favors 
which  I  have  had  occasion  to  acknowledge 
from  Mr.  Harding  and  his  assistants. 

Saturday  morning  eight  of  us  took  a  six 
o'clock  breakfast  and  left  by  early  train  for 
a  day  at  Santa  Cruz,  arriving  at  the  beach 
station  soon  after  nine  o'clock.  Santa  Cruz 
has  long  been  the  most  popular  and  fash- 
ionable seaside  resort  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 


158  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

Althoiio^h  the  town  lias  a  population  of  but 
five  or  six  thousand,  the  influx  of  visitors  d ur- 
ine: some  months  of  the  year  often  swells  the 
number  of  actual  inhabitants  to  ten  thous- 
and. It  is  situated,  nominally,  on  Mon- 
terey Bay,  although  so  well  on  to  the  cape 
at  its  entrance  as  to  be  really  as  much  an 
ocean  as  a  bay  town.  In  its  location,  as  well 
as  its  composition,  it  is  thoroughly  pictur- 
esque; and  it  is  a  common  remark  of  tour- 
ists that  it  is  among  the  pleasantest  places 
in  California.  Grace  Greenwood  happily 
described  it  in  a  few  words  when  she  wrote, 
some  years  ago :  "  Santa  Cruz  is  a  beauti- 
ful, smiling  town,  seated  on  the  knees  of 
pleasant  terraces  with  her  feet  in  the  sea." 
Many  of  the  private  residences  in  the  heart 
of  the  city,  and  the  clusters  of  cottages  in 
the  suburbs,  are  embowered  in  roses,  which 
grow  to  wonderful  size  and  in  great  profu- 
sion. We  spent  but  an  hour  or  two  in  the 
city,  only  observing  enough  of  its  scenery 
to  occasion  regret  that  days  instead  of  hours 
had  not  been  assigned  for  the  visit. 


TO    THE  PACIFIC.  \^(^ 

The  main  object  of  this  incidental  trip 
to  Santa  Cruz  was  to  see  Big  Tree  Grove, 
which  lies  eight  miles  up  the  San  Lorenzo 
River,  and  is  reached  bj  a  narrow  gauge 
railroad  or  by  carriage.  We  employed  the 
latter  medium,  partly  because  of  a  prefer- 
ence for  the  carriage  drive  through  the  pic- 
turesque San  Lorenzo  Defile,  but  chiefly 
because  the  narrow-gauge  train  had  already 
departed  when  we  were  ready  to  start. 
The  drive  to  the  Grove  occupied  little  more 
than  an  hour,  and  proved  to  be  even  more 
agreeable  than  had  been  anticipated,  the 
road  being  good,  the  weather  delightful, 
and  the  scenery  positively  enchanting.  At 
the  Grove  we  found  a  great  number  of 
visitors  from  San  Francisco,  and  several 
parties  encamped  in  tents  on  the  banks 
of  the  adjacent  stream.  The  big  trees  f;on- 
sist  of  perhaps  a  score  of  immense  speci- 
mens, with  hundreds  of  smaller  ones,  all  of 
the  California  red-wood,  and  exceedingly 
shapely   in   form.      The    largest    is    '^  The 


IQQ  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

Giant,"  which  measures  sixty-six  feet  in 
circumference,  and  is  three  hundred  and 
forty  feet  high  as  it  stands.  Some  weeks 
ago  a  gale  of  wind  broke  twenty -four  feet 
from  the  top — its  previous  heiglit  having 
been  three"  hundred  and  seventy-four  feet. 
It  is  a  good,  honest  tree,  and  the  measure- 
ment here  given  is  of  bona  fide  trunk,  not  of 
root  extensions.  Its  height  to  the  first 
branch  is  about  one  hundred  and  twenty 
feet,  or  more  than  the  entire  height  of  most 
of  the  tallest  trees  of  Xew  England.  An- 
other large  tree  is  the  "  General  Fremont." 
This  is  sixty-three  feet  in  circumference 
and  three  hundred  and  ten  feet  high.  The 
lower  fifteen  feet  of  the  trunk  is  hollow, 
and  its  interior  measures  upon  the  ground 
twenty-four  feet  eight  inches  in  its  largest, 
and  eighteen  feet  in  its  smallest  diameter. 
Forty-six  men  have  stood  upright  within 
it  at  one  time,  and  our  little  party  of 
twelve  found  abundant  room  for  circulating 
abont  within  its  walls  without  jostling  each 


TO    THE  PACIFIC,  \Q\ 

otlier  in  tlie  least.  AYhen  tliis  Grove  was 
first  discovered,  in  1840,  a  Mexican  family" 
were  living  in  tins  hollow  tree,  and  it  is 
known  that  several  children  were  born 
there.  In  '46,  wlien  General  Fremont  was 
at  Santa  Cruz,  he  made  his  headquarters  in 
the  tree  for  a  short  time,  which  fact  fur- 
nislied  a  reason  for  giving  it  his  name. 
The  interior  is  approached  through  an 
aperture  cut  in  the  trunk,  about  three  by 
six  feet  in  size,  and  is  lighted  by  three 
holes  or  windows,  each  about  two  feet 
sqtiare.  The  thickness  of  the  shell,  includ- 
ing wood  and  bark,  as  I  measured  it  with 
my  walking-stick,  is  about  two  and  a  half 
feet.  The  interior  surface  of  the  trunk,  as 
high  as  a  man  can  reach,  is  covered  with 
the  cards  of  visitors.  Of  course,  each  of 
our  party  contributed  his  individual  paste- 
board to  the  collection.  "  Jumbo "  is  an- 
other large  specimen,  so  called  from  a  gnarled 
spot  on  one  face  of  the  trunk  which  resem- 
bles   an    elephant's    head.      "  The    Tliree 


1^2  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

Sisters "  stand  side  by  side,  two  or  three 
feet  apart,  a  cavity  througli  the  middle  tree 
being  nsed  as  an  ice  cream  saloon  in  which- 
several  persons  may  easily  sit  around  a 
table  therein,  where  ice  cream  and  cake  are 
served.  Other  almost  equally  large  trees 
have  local  names,  and  some  of  them  a  curi- 
ous local  history.  An  old  giant,  lying 
prone  upon  the  ground,  once  served  as  a 
tan  vat,  a  rude  tannery  being  located  here 
when  the  Grove  was  discovered  by  white 
men.  The  huge  trunk  lies  there,  one  hun- 
dred feet  in  length,  and  of  an  almost  uni- 
form size  from  one  end  to  the  other.  In  this 
trunk  are  cut  four  vats,  each  twenty  feet 
long  and  five  feet  deep  and  about  seven 
feet  wide.  The  sides  of  the  vats  are  con- 
siderably decayed  and  broken,  but  their 
shape  and  dimensions  are  easily  marked. 
This  old  tree,  lying  by  its  stump,  in  the 
same  position  that  it  fell  and  was  used 
half  a  century  ago,  forms  an  interest- 
ino'  relic  of  an  ao:e  which  ante-dates  civiliza- 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  \Q,^ 

tion  on  this  part  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  The 
tract  of  real  estate  on  which  the  Big  Tree 
Grove  is  located,  is  owned  by  the  railroad 
company,  and  the  Grove  is  leased  to  a  Mr. 
Aldrich,  who  keeps  the  grounds  in  condition, 
provides  entertainment  for  visitors,  and  has 
photographic  views  of  the  trees  for  sale. 
He  is  very  polite  in  his  attentions,  and  thor- 
oughly reasonable  in  his  charges.  The  at- 
traction which  this  locality  possesses  for 
tourists  and  others  is  indicated  by  the  great 
number  of  visitors  who  come  here,  some- 
times a  thousand  in  a  single  day.  I  have 
made  no  incidental  excursion  durino-  the 
progress  of  this  trip,  which  has  been  more 
gratifying  in  its  results,  or  will  be  recalled 
with  greater  pleasure,  than  this  day  at  the 
Big  Tree  Grove  of  Santa  Cruz. 

I  have  felt  a  little  disaj^pointment  in  not 
being  able  to  mature  plans  for  putting  in  a 
day  at  San  Jose.  Having  passed  through 
the  city  twice,  and  had  glowing  descriptions 
of  its  beauty  from  those  familiar  with  it,  I 


1(34  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

am  quite  sure  that  I  have  lost  something  in 
failing  to  visit  the  place.  It  is  in  the  very 
richest  part  of  the  Santa  Clara  Yalley,  is 
celebrated  for  its  floral  attractions,  its  fruit 
orchards,  and  its  fine  streets.  Cherries  and 
other  small  fruit,  as  vrell  as  flowers  and 
trees,  are  at  their  best  just  now,  and  the  sit- 
uation must  be  enchanting  to  the  palate  as 
well  as  to  the  eye.  But  we  are  too  far  from 
San  Jose  now  to  think  of  a  visit  this  time  ; 
some  other  time,  perhaps. 

As  before  intimated,  we  feel  as  if  the 
Raymond  Excursion  to  the  Pacific  were 
drawing  to  a  close.  "We  are  here  again  in 
San  Francisco  to  prepare  for  the  return 
East ;  and  when  we  finally  get  started  in 
that  direction  there  will  be  few  and  short 
stops  this  side  of  our  ultimate  destination. 
I  shall  probably  address  you  a  letter  from 
Salt  Lake  City,  but  that  will  be  the  last. 
This  has  been  a  trip  of  sight-seeing,  and  not 
for  letter- writing  ;  and  I  often  entertain  re- 
grets that  any  attempt  has  been  made  by 


TO    THE  PACIFIC.  \Q^ 

me  to  record  observations  or  experiences  by 
tlie  way.  With  time  to  do  it  well,  the 
story  could  have  been  made  interesting  and 
profitable ;  as  it  is,  it  may,  perhaps,  prove  a 
momentary  gratification  to  some  of  ns  who 
have  participated,  but  nothing  more. 


166  fJiOM  K£W  ENGLAND 


XII. 

Good-Bye  to  San  Francisco — Again  in 
the  Pullmans — Over  the  Sierra  Nevada^ — 
Rounding  Cape  Horn — Charming  Moun- 
tain Scenery — Hydraulic  Mining — Christen- 
ing a  Papoose — Salt  LaJ:e  City — In  the  Mor- 
mon Tabernacle — Eighty- One  Babies. 

Salt  Lake  City,  Utah,  June  15th. 
The  last  two  or  three  days  in  San  Fran- 
cisco were  busy  ones  for  the  Kaymond 
Party.  There  were  farewell  visits  to  be 
made  among  friends,  final  tramps  and 
drives  about  the  city  and  its  environs,  a 
long  list  of  engagements  to  fill,  and  many 
souvenirs  to  be  purchased.  They  were  try- 
ing days  for  many  a  plethoric  pocket  book ; 
and  I  do  not  doubt  that  the  trinket 
dealers  of  Kearney  and   Montgomery  and 


TO.  THE   PACIFIC,  167 

Market  Streets,  and  the  Chinese  Quarter, 
were  made  tally  a  thousand  dollars  happier 
during  the  shopping  tours  of  the  ladies  and 
gentlemen  on  Monday  and  Tuesday,  and 
"Wednesday  morning.  I  employed  the  time 
chiefly  in  trips  to  the  Presidio  and  the 
Golden  Gate,  taking  one  more  look  through 
"Woodward's  Gardens,  a  climb  to  the  top  of 
the  observatory  on  Telegraph  Hill,  and  a 
run  over  to  Oakland — one  of  the  prettiest 
cities,  by  the  way,  on  this  or  any  other  con- 
tinent. On  the  morning  of  our  departure  I 
chanced  to  read  in  the  morning  paper  some- 
thing about  Judge  Toohy's  rulings,  and  it  oc- 
curred to  me  that  Judge  Toohy  is  a  brother 
of  the  celebrated  Hartford  auctioneer  of  the 
same  name.  So  I  posted  off  in  the  rain  to 
the  old  City  Hall,  near  the  corner  of  Kear- 
ney and  Washington  Streets,  and  found  the 
Judge  just  leaving  the  Superior  Court 
Chambers.  The  mention  of  AVilliam  Toohy 
as  my  friend  and  acquaintance,  proved  a 
passport  to  the  hospitality  of  the  big-hearted 


IQg  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

judge,  and  his  welcome  was  so  sincere  and 
cordial  as  to  make  it  very  hard  for  me  to 
extend  greetings  and  adieus,  as  I  was 
obliged  to,  in  almost  the  same  breath.  I 
shall  never  forget  the  warmth  of  his  hand- 
shaking ^s  he  bowed  me  out  of  his  sanctum 
and  wished  me  "  a  safe  and  delightful  jour- 
ney back  to  old  Hartford  !  "  We  shall  all 
take  with  us  many  pleasant  recollections  of 
our  stay  in  San  Francisco,  which,  despite  its 
chilly  winds  and  the  phenomenal  rain  storm 
with  which  we  left  it  deluged,  is  a  city  that 
bears  acquaintance  wonderfully  well. 

We  took  our  last  lunch  at  the  Palace 
Hotel  at  noon  of  Wednesday,  and  shortly 
afterward  were  summoned  for  rendezvous  in 
the  -court-yard  corridors,  from  whence  the 
coaches  of  the  United  Carriage  Company 
conveyed  the  party  to  the  Oakland  ferry. 
Four  miles  across  the  bay  we  found  in  wait- 
ing for  us  two  of  the  elegant  buffet  boudoir 
cars  of  the  Pullman  Company,  which  our 
thoughtful  manager  had  provided  in  order 


TO    THE  PACIFIC.  Ig^ 

that  we  might  enjoy  well-cooked  and  well- 
served  meals  in  transit  between  San  Fran- 
cisco and  Salt  Lake  City,  in  lieu  of  the 
uncertain  accommodations  of  border  hotels 
and  restaurants.  One  who  has  not  had  the 
experience  can  hardly  appreciate  the  satis- 
faction which  attended  our  reunion  in  the 
Pullmans  which  we  had  learned  to  reo-ard 
as  home  on  the  outward  trip.  Doubtless- 
the  fact  that  we  were  now  heading  home- 
ward, with  nearer  anticipations  of  the  wel- 
come awaiting  us  from  loved  ones,  had  sorae- 
tliing  to  do  with  the  general  good .  feeling 
manifest  in  smiling  faces  and  kindly  greet- 
ings and  extra-obliging  manners,  I  am  sure 
tlie  weather  was  in  no  sense  responsible,  for 
tlie  rain  poured  with  a  persistence  which 
threatened  to  imperil  railroad  travel  as  it 
was  jeopardizing  the  hay  crop  exposed  to- 
view  in  our  progress  up  the  coast  of  San 
Pablo  Bay.  In  good  time  we  made  the 
straits  of  Carquinez,  where  the  mammoth 
ferry  boat   Solano,  the  largest   craft   of  its- 


170  FROM  NEW  EXGLAXD 

kind  in  the  world,  takes  the  entire  train 
across  to  Benicia.  Through  vineyards  and 
orchards  and  waving  grain  fields  we  went 
leisurely  on  to  Sacramento,  and  at  Colfax 
halted,  the  cars  remaining  stationary  on  the 
track  through  the  night  in  order  that  we 
mit^ht  make  the  transit  of  the  next  one  hun- 
dred  miles  by  daylight,  through  the  r^on 
of  some  of  the  most  romantic  scenery  on  the 
<!ontinent.  For  over  fourteen  hundred  miles 
of  our  journey  from  Colfax  eastward,  through 
California,  Xevada,  Utah,  Wyoming  and  a 
portion  of  Xebraska,  our  path  is  at  an  eleva- 
tion of  from  two  thousand  five  hundred  to 
over  eight  thousand  feet  above  the  sea  level. 
Along  here,  as  we  cross  the  Sierra  INTevadas, 
the  altitude  is  from  five  to  seven  thousand 
feet.  For  much  of  the  time  we  are  actuaUj 
among  snow  banks,  and  for  several  days  in 
succession  we  appear  to  be  surrounded  and 
hemmed  in  by  mountains  whose  ragged 
sides  and  summits  lie  deep  buried  under  the 
accumulated  snows  of  generations  and  per- 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  171 

haps  centuries.  As  the  train  winds  around 
the  hill  sides,  among  intricate  passes,  through 
dark  canons,  over  trestles  and  into  tunnels, 
it  seems  as  if  we  must  be  hopelessly  lost, 
and  it  becomes  a  standing  wonder  how  a 
railroad  could  ever  be  located  here.  About 
five  miles  east  of  Colfax  the  train  passes 
around  the  point  familiarly  known  as  "Cape 
Horn."  It  is  a  projection  of  the  rocky 
mountain  side  on  which  the  road  had  to  be 
constructed  upon  a  kind  of  shelf;  and  as 
the  train  halts  for  a  moment  on  the  very 
brink,  one  may  look  down  almost  vertically 
two  thousand  two  hundred  feet,  to  the  bed 
of  the  American  Eiver  below,  where  the 
stream  appears  in  the  deep  distance  to  be 
scarcely  more  than  a  little  brook. 

We  get  magnificent  views  for  many  miles 
of  our  route  through  this  American  Canon. 
The  gorges  are  of  vast  depth  and  extent ; 
the  mountains  covered  with  tall  trees  up  to 
the  timber  line,  and  with  eternal  snow  above 
it ;    the   waterfalls   and    mountain   streams 


X72  FROM  NEW  EX  GLAND 

come  tumbling  down  in  surprising  volume  ; 
witli  now  and  then  little  valleys  wliere  wild  - 
flowers  spring,  as  if  nature  had  dropped  her 
fancy  morning  robe  among  the  hills,  or 
thrown  out  some  of  her  best  parlor  carpets 
for  an  airing.  The  long  snow  sheds,  cover- 
ing an  extent  of  forty  miles,  obstruct  the 
views  on  both  sides  in  a  most  exasperating 
manner,  but  whenever  the  train  stops  for  a 
moment — as  for  some  cause  it  often  does — 
we  do  not  fail  to  alight  and  catch  glimpses 
through  the  cracks  and  seams  of  the  heavy 
plank  sides.  One  of  tlie  very  prettiest  land- 
scapes at  this  great  elevation  takes  in  Don- 
ner  Lake,  which  nestles  among  the  peaks 
just. east  of  the  summit.  It  is  about  four 
miles  long  by  one  and  a  half  broad,  and  lies 
at  an  altitude  of  six  thousand  seven  hundred 
and  forty-nine  feet  above  the  sea.  Its  waters 
are  like  crystal,  and  its  pebbly  beach  is  as 
fine  as  can  be  imagined.  The  railroad  ap- 
proaches to  within  about  a  hundred  yards  of 
its  maro;in.     Its  location  is  such  as  to  render 


■      TO    THE  PACIFIC.  \1^ 

a  nearer  approach  almost  impossible.  I  do 
not  suppose  there  is  a  human  habitation 
within  a  great  many  miles  of  it.  At  Dutch 
Flat,  Blue  Canon,  and  east  as  well  as  west 
of  the  divide,  are  extensive  traces  of  hy- 
draulic mining.  Thousands  of  acres  are 
covered  with  the  debris  of  hills  and  rock 
elevations  which  have  been  reduced  and 
swept  away  under  huge  streams  of  water 
conveyed  through  pipes  and  conduits.  This 
debris  covers  broad  plains  or  stands  like 
huge  sentinels  in  spots  to  mark  where  once 
the  mountain  stood.  The  aggregate  of 
earth  which  toiling  miners  have  thus  re- 
moved in  their  laborious  search  for  gold,  is 
simply  stupendous.  Perhaps  I  do  not  need 
to  explain  to  you  wliat  hydraulic  mining  is. 
The  miner  selects  his  claim,  which  may  be 
a  2:ravel  liill,  one  or  two  hundred  feet  hio;li 
and  covering  an  area  of  ten  or  twenty  acres. 
To  find  the  gold  contained  in  this  hill  by 
the  old  method,  the  whole  elevation  must  be 
shoveled  over  and  examined.     But  the  hv- 


X74  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

draiilic  miner  makes  a  reservoir  at  a  high 
altitude  on  a  neighhoring  mountain,  and 
through  an  iron  pipe  plays  water  from  the 
reservoir  on  to  the  hill  as  a  fireman  would 
play  through  his  hose  upon  a  burning  build- 
ing. He  sends  sometimes  a  four  or  six-inch 
stream,  under  five  hundred  feet  head.  Un- 
der such  influences  his  gravel  hill  gets 
washed  away  with  great  rapidity,  while  the 
savincv  of  manual  labor  is  several  liundred 

o 

per  cent. 

We  spent  Thursday  night  at  Truckee, 
and  took  breakfast  next  morning  at  Keno, 
the  first  station  in  Nevada  east  of  California. 
I  shall  remember  Keno,  because  of  its  de- 
lightful situation  on  a  pretty  crowning 
plateau,  surrounded  by  snowy  mountains, 
which  the  rising  sun  gilded  until  they 
looked  like  lire  opals  in  the  hazy  heights 
above.  I  shall  remember  it,  also,  because 
of  the  fine  flavor  of  the  salmon  trout  which 
constituted  the  first  course  of  our  breakfast 
at  the  station  dining-hall.     Granite  Point, 


TO    THE  PACIFIC.  yj^ 

an  otlierwise  insigniiicant  station,  ninety 
miles  bejond,  was  rendered  memorable  by 
the  appearance  of  an  Indian  sqnaw  with  her 
one-week-old  papoose,  in  a  wicker  cage,  on 
her  back.  She  was  begging  for  the  papoose. 
Her  chief  desire  seemed  to  be  for  cookies. 
We  had  no  cookies,  nor  other  edibles 
adapted  for  so  young  a  child,  so  we  gave  it 
simply  a  name,  AYe  christened  the  papoose 
Charles  T.  Almy,  in  honor  of  an  honorable 
and  esteemed  member  of  our  party.  The 
wigwams  of  the  Piute  and  Shoshone  Indi- 
ans are  frequently  seen  along  the  line  of  the 
railroad,  and  their  occupants  put  in  an  ap- 
pearance at  about  every  station.  The  Indi- 
ans are  allowed  to  ride  on  the  freight  trains 
of  this  road  without  payment  of  fares. 
We  were  at  Humboldt  in  time  for  dinner. 
For  over  three  hundred  miles  the  railroad 
traverses  the  Humboldt  Valley,  by  the  mar- 
gin of  the  Humboldt  Eiver,  and  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Humboldt  Range  of  moun- 
tains.    This  Humboldt  Itiver,  which   is  a 


176  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

stream  of  about  the  voliime  of  vour  Farin- 
ington  River,  is  live  hundred  miles  in 
length,  empties  into  a  small  lake,  known  as 
^'  Humboldt  Sink,"  and  thus  disappears,  as 
the  lake  has  no  outlet.  Friday  afternoon 
we  made  two  hundred  miles  before  darkness 
shut  out  the  series  of  magnificent  views 
among  the  mountains  and  palisades,  which 
rendered  the  dav  and  ride  memorable. 
Friday  evening  found  us  eating  strawberries 
and  cream,  mountain  trout  and  baked  pota- 
toes, with  orange  fritters  and  coffee,  at  the 
little  station  restaurant  at  Elko.  Friday 
night,  while  we  slept,  our  trusty  engineer 
made  the  run  of  the  Great  American  Des- 
ert in  northeastern  Xevada  and  northwest- 
ern Utah.  At  daybreak  we  came  in  sight 
of  Great  Salt  Lake,  and  skirted  its  coast 
for  thirty  miles.  Ogden  was  reached  in 
time  for  an  early  breakfast,  and  half  an 
hour  given  us  in  which  to  observe  and  ad- 
mire the  natural  attractions  of  this  second 
city  of  importance  in  the  territory.     It  lies 


TO   THE   PACIFIC.  17 J 

at  the  head  of  the  beautiful  valley  which 
extends  south  beyond  Salt  Lake  City,  is 
protected  by  high  mountains  on  three  sides, 
penetrated  by  numerous  caiions  which  con- 
stitute avenues  of  approach  for  railroads 
from  at  least  four  points  of  the  compass. 
It  is  a  busy  place,  and  delightful  to  behold 
in  its  setting  of  green  and  white  mountain  sce- 
nery, with  the  spreading  valley  at  its  feet  and 
the  blue  lake  in  the  distance.  At  Ogden  we 
diverge  from  the  direct  route,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  visiting  Salt  Lake  City,  the  capital 
of  Mormondom,  thirty-seven  miles  directly 
south.  The  route  lies  through  a  fertile  valley, 
which  is  dotted  here  and  there  with  little 
white  houses,  to  the  number  of  several 
hundred.  Li  the  distance  we  see  the  main 
road  up  the  valley  tilled  with  single  and 
double  wagons,  loaded  with  men,  women 
and  children,  all  going  toward  Ogden.  In- 
quiry reveals  the  secret  of  the  exodus ;  there 
was  to  be  a  circus. 

A  clock,  somewhere,  is  striking  the  hour 


178  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

of  nine  as  our  train  makes  the  first  halt, 
and  we  find  ourselves  in  the  midst  of  Zion. 


as  the  Latter  Day  Saints  denominate  their 
city.  The  Mormon  metropolis  is  a  city  of 
somewhat  more  than  twenty  thousand  in- 
habitants, three-quarters  of  whom  are  Mor- 
mons. The  great  Temple  is  in  the  center  of 
the  city,  and  the  streets,  which  run  at  right 
angles,  are  all  named  and  numbered  from  it. 
The  streets  are  wide  and  lined  with  shade 
trees,  brooks  of  living  water  from  the 
mountains  ruiming  in  trenches  upon  either 
side  of  every  aA^enue,  and  serving  to  irrigate 
as  well  the  yards  and  gardens.  On  the 
north  and  east  rise  the  rugged  spurs  of  the 
"Wahsatch  Mountains,  on  the  south  and 
west  the  broad  and  fertile  valley  extends 
twenty  or  thirty  miles,  and  away  to  the 
northwest  lies  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  or  in- 
land sea,  ninety-five  miles  long,  thirty  miles 
broad,  and  at  an  elevation  of  four  thousand 
two  hundred  and  sixty  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  ocean.     We  lose  no  time  in  making 


TO    THE  PACIFIC.  179 

up  little  exploring  parties  to  the  various 
points  which  demand  attention.  Through 
the  courtesy  of  Hon.  Guido  Marx,  your 
correspondent  made  the  tour  of  the  city  in 
distinguished  company  and  under  the  pilotage 
of  a  well-informed  and  attentive  coach- 
man. We  drove  through  all  the  streets, 
our  particular  attention  being  called  to  the 
original  residence  and  to  the  grave  of  Brig- 
ham  Young,  the  "  Bee  Hive "  and  the 
"Lion,"  the  Amelia  Palace,  the  homes  of 
present  church  dignitaries,  the  three  houses 
of  Brigham  Young,  Jr.,  in  which  his  three 
wives  respectively  reside.  Camp  Douglas, 
etc.  In  an  enclosure,  surrounded  by  a  wall 
ten  feet  high,  are  the  Tabernacle,  the 
Assembly  House,  the  Endowment  House, 
and  the  new  Temple,  which  latter  is  in  an 
unfinished  condition,  having  been  thirty-one 
years  in  reaching  its  present  dimensions, 
and  is  expected  to  be  completed  during  the 
present  century.  It  is  to  cost  ten  millions, 
about  half  of  which  has  already  been  ex- 


][_§()  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

pended.  Its  foundations  are  sixteen  feet 
thick,  its  walls,  which  are  of  granite,  being 
nine  feet  and  nine  inches  thick  above  the 
foundation.  When  completed  it  will  be  a 
very  substantial  and  imposing  structure. 
The  Tabernacle  is  a  remarkable  building. 
In  it  the  Sunday  services  are  held.  It  will 
seat  ten  thousand  persons.  It  contains  an 
organ  which  cost  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  Its  acoustic  properties  are  so  per- 
fect that,  notwithstanding  its  immense  size,  a 
pin  dropped  upon  the  floor  at  one  end  of 
the  audience  room  is  distinctly  heard  by  a 
person  standing  at  the  opposite  extremity. 
I  attended  services  in  the  great  Tabernacle 
this  afternoon,  and  heard  Joseph  F.  Smith 
blaspheme.  Joseph  F.  is  a  son  of  Hiram 
Smith,  and  a  nephew  of  the  original  Joe 
Smith,  prophet  and  revelator.  He  occupies 
in  the  church  the  position  of  second  coun- 
selor, whatever  that  may  mean.  There 
was,  this  afternoon,  an  audience  of  fully  six 
thousand  persons,  three-quarters  of  whom 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  \%\ 

were  women.  The  ordinance  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  is  celebrated  every  Sunday.  It 
took  twelve  deacons  one  liour  and  twenty 
minutes  to-day,  to  serve  the  bread  and  water 
(not  wine).  There  were  eighty-one  babies 
in  the  congregation,  and  you  may  well 
imagine  they  accomplished  considerable 
howling,  which,  however,  did  not  seem  to 
disturb  the  other  exercises  in  the  least.  The 
Mormon  women,  as  they  appeared  in  the 
Tabernacle,  are  certainly  the  worst  looking 
crowd  I  ever  met.  It  is  a  mystery  to  me 
how  a  man  can  endure  a  plurality  of  them 
in  the  capacity  of  wife,  or  any  other  capac- 
ity. There  were  fifteen  or  twenty  celebrants 
who  took  a  hand  in  the  ceremonies,  but 
three  or  four  of  tliem  did  all  the  talking. 
Joseph  Smith  was,  evidently,  the  most  cul- 
tured of  the  speakers.  He  seemed  to  ob- 
serve that  there  were  manv  strano-ers  amono^ 
his  auditors  (special  seats  are  reserved  for 
strangers)  and  to  have  made  up  his  mind  to 
^'  give  'em  fits."     He  traduced  and  maligned 


132  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

all  other  religions  sects  and  denominations, 
and  extolled  the  Mormon  creed  as  the  con- 
servator of  all  that  is  good  in  faith  or  prac- 
tice. He  blasphemingly  classed  Jo.  Smitli 
and  B.  Young  with  Moses  and  our  Saviour, 
giving  the  former  priority  in  the  order  of 
classiiication.  It  was  a  shocking  exhibition 
of  demagoguerj  and  fanaticism.  The 
music  was  fine.  The  great  organ,  accom- 
panied by  a  trained  choir  of  nearly  two  hun- 
dred voices,  under  a  leader  who  knew  his 
business,  filled  the  immens'e  auditorium  with 
music  that  in  its  grandeur  and  sublimity 
seemed  worthy  of  a  more  exalted  and  sacred 
purpose.  Strangely  enough,  the  words  and 
melodies  were  the  same  that  I  have  heard 
in  orthodox  churches  a  hundred  times. 

"My  God  is  reconciled, 

His  pard'ning  voice  I  hear, 
He  owns  me  for  his  child, 

I  can  no  longer  fear  ; 
With  confidence  I  now  draw  nigh, 
And  Father,  Abba  Father,  cry," 

Was  rendered  with  a  skill  and  pathos  which 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  \%^ 

set  many  a  disconsolate  looking  woman  in 
the  audience  to  sobbing  audibly  and  convul- 
sively. It  was  a  cruel  mockery  of  undefiled 
religion  which  made  the  head  faint  and  the 
whole  heart  sick.  I  have  conversed  person- 
ally with  several  of  these  Mormons,  and 
feel  thoroughly  disgusted  with  the  whole 
business.  If  there  were  space  for  it  in  this 
letter,  I  could  relate  incidents  which  have 
come  to  my  knowledge  or  under  my  obser- 
vation already,  which  would  lead  you  to 
sympathize  with 'me  in  my  unqualified  dis- 
gust. 

"We  were  entertained  at  the  Continental 
Hotel  during  the  sojourn  here.  It  is  a  mis- 
erable hostelry,  untidy  in  its  furnishings, 
and  worse  in  its  cuisine.  Yet  it  is  beyond 
question  the  best  hotel  in  the  city.  Tlie 
commercial  houses  here  are  generally  quite 
commonplace  in  the  variety  of  their  mer- 
chandise, and  by  no  means  pretentious  in 
outside  appearances.  I  have  heard  much 
said  of  the  attractiveness  of  Salt  Lake  City, 


134  FROM 'NEW  ENGLAND 

but  careful  observation  lias  failed  to  detect 
a  single  reason,  beyond  the  beauty  of  situ- 
ation, for  the  compliments  of  this  sort 
which  others  have  bestowed.  In  no  respect, 
as  I  observe  it,  does  the  city  compare  fav- 
orably with  a  great  many  others  this  side 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley ;  and  it  is  so  far 
behind  Denver,  for  instance,  as  to  dwindle 
in  comparison.  But  we  are  exceedingly 
glad  of  having  had  an  opportunity  to  see 
the  city,  which,  by  reason  of  its  religion, 
has  become  fully  as  famous  as  any  other 
city  in  the  old  or  new  world.  We  shall 
leave  it  to-morrow,  and  unless  the  rain 
which  threatens  to-night  comes  to  interfere 
with  the  process,  we  shall  "  shake  the  dust 
from  our  feet "  in  departing,  as  a  testimony 
against  this  ungodly  and  adulterous  genera- 
tion. 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  185 


XIII. 

The  Backward  Jourxey — Social  Calls  in 
Mormondom — Mining  Interests  of  Utah — 
Webher  and  Echo  Canons — Wonderful  Rock 
Formations — Again  the  Rockies — Disintegra- 
tion of  the  Raymond  Party — A  Fevj  Things 
Personal — Home  Again. 

Niagara  Falls,  June  20th. 
I  bade  you  good  evening  last  Sunday  at 
Salt  Lake  City,  since  which  date  we  have 
traveled  over  an  additional  two  thousand 
five  hundred  miles  of  mountain  and  prairie, 
and  find  ourselves  within  an  easy  twenty- 
four  hours  run  of  Hartford.  Somehow,  there 
doesn't  seem  to  be  the  same  incentive  to 
write  details  of  the  homeward  as  there  was 
of  the  outward  journey  ;  and,  although  there 
is  quite  as  much  of  the  novel  and  wonder- 


][§(3  FROM  NEW  ENGLAXD 

fill  to  be  seen  on  the  line  of  the  Central  and 
Union  as  on  the  Southern  Pacific  Hailroad, 
I  think  I  shall  be  able  to  condense  the  whole 
within  the  limits  of  this  letter. 

We  left  Salt  Lake  City  at  three  o'clock, 
Monday  afternoon.  The  morning  was  devo- 
ted to  personal  investigations  of  this  chief 
citadel  of  Mormonism,  in  such  various  ways 
as  the  inclinations  of  the  investigators  seemed 
to  dictate.  My  own  inclination  led  me,  in 
company  with  Mr.  Fullam,  to  make  a  for- 
mal call  on  President  Taylor  and  his  wives 
at  their  home  in  the  famed  Amelia  Palace ; 
and  further  to  a  personal  interview  with 
Joseph  F.  Smith,  the  chief  apostle,  who  is 
alleged  to  be  able  to  cure  diseases  and  con- 
fer the  gift  of  tongues,  by  the  laying  on  of 
hands.  We  attempted  a  call  upon  Brigham 
Young,  junior,  but  absence  of  that  dignitary 
from  the  city,  and  a  disinclination  of  his 
private  secretary  to  allow  strange  gentlemen 
at  either  of  the  tln-ee  houses  where  his  three 
wives  reside,  and  where  he  lodges  alternately 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  IgT 

when  "  at  home,"  interfered  with  the  com- 
plete execution  of  our  purpose.  At  the 
Amelia  Palace  we  found  only  the  one  wife 
with  w^hich  the  President  now  lives,  and  in 
the  absence  of  the  public  functionary  him- 
self our  interview  with  her  was  exceedingly 
brief  and  thoroughly  conventional.  We 
met  a  most  cordial  welcome  from  Counsellor 
Smith,  who  is  a  gentleman  of  scholarly  at- 
tainments and  of  most  positive  religious 
sentiments.  After  makino^  a  tour  of  the 
tithing  houses,  and  some  other  of  the  insti- 
tutions of  the  Saints,  I  dropped  in  upon  Mr. 
Prescott  of  The  Daily  Trihune  and  looked 
through  the  mechanical  department  of  his 
establishment.  My  last  hour  in  the  city 
was  most  agreeably  spent  at  the  Salt  Lake 
Mining  Institute,  where  I  met  the  polite 
personal  attention  of  Professor  Clayton,  who 
very  kindly  made  up  for  me  a  collection  of 
specimens  of  the  ores  and  minerals  of  Utah, 
from  the  contents  of  his  extensive  and 
admirable  museum  and  laboratory.     I  shall 


X88  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

have  something  to  say  hereafter  concerning 
the  possibilities  of  Utah  as  a  mining  terri- 
tory for  the  precious  metals. 

Retracing  our  way  to  Ogden,  the  point  of 
intersection  with  the  Union  Pacific  railroad, 
we  shortly  found  ourselves  headed  east  and 
fairly  on  the  home  stretch,  without  expecta- 
tion of  further  tarryings  or  delays  on  the 
trip.  Supper  was  eaten  at  the  Ogden  Sta- 
tion Hotel,  and  the  train  lost  as  little  time 
•as  possible  in  getting  off;  for  the  majestic 
scenery  of  Webber  and  Echo  Canons  lay 
•all  along  the  route  within  the  next  fifty 
miles,  and  our  anxiety  was  great  to  take  in 
the  grand  exhibition  before  night  should 
drop  its  curtain  of  darkness  between  us  and 
the  panorama.  Without  even  the  formality 
■of  announcement,  the  show  began  in  the 
magnificent  rock  and  mountain  scenery  all 
about  us,  as  the  train  made  its  first  plunge 
across  Webber  River,  and  followed  the 
stream  in  its  tortuous  windino-s  into  the 
€anon  to   which  the  river  gives  its   name. 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  189 

The  rocky  walls  which  confine  the  waters 
became  higher  and  more  precipitous,  and  the 
general  view  wilder,  until  at  Devil's  Gate 
the  climax  is  reached,  where  the  river  makes 
a  sudden  sweep  to  tlie  nortli  and  then  to  the 
southeast  again,  through  a  mighty  chasm 
which  seems  to  have  been  opened  expressly 
for  the  purpose  in  the  immense  wall  of  rock 
which  must  have  once  stood  there  to  dispute 
the  farther  progress  of  this  rushing  torrent. 
For  a  dozen  miles  there  is  the  same  succes- 
sion of  rock  and  ravine  and  towering  height 
and  nestling  valley,  until  shortly  tlie  whole 
thing  changes,  and  behold !  a  great  plain 
with  outcroppings  of  tremendous  cliffs  and 
boulders  in  weird  and  fascinating  forms  of 
castles  and  fortresses,  and  ruined  cities,  and 
miles  of  wall  standing  where  nature  built  it 
as  if  with  line  and  plummet,  thirty,  forty, 
fiftv  feet  hio;h,  in  solid  adamant.  IN'ear  the 
railroad  track  we  pass  the  famous  Devil's 
Slide,  photographs  of  which  are  on  exhibi- 
tion in  pretty  much  every  part  of  the  world. 


igO  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

This  ''  slide  "  is  on  the  face  of  a  high  and 
steep  mountain  which  is  covered  with  ver- 
dure. Out  of  this  verdure  crop  two  great 
parallel  walls  of  rock,  about  ten  feet  apart, 
starting  apparently  about  one-third  of  a 
mile  up  the  mountain  and  continuing  at  a 
height  of  perhaps  sixty  to  seventy  feet  down 
to  its  base.  The  space  between  the  two 
walls  is  not  grass-grown,  but  of  a  rock- 
chippy  character  which  would  be  likely  to 
prove  unpleasant  even  to  the  Devil  should 
he  attempt  in  jyrojiria  personcn  to  accomplish 
the  descent  without  his  buckskin  pants  on. 
As  we  approach  Echo  Canon  the  distant  ele- 
vations appear  to  be  crowned  with  immense 
fortresses,  perfect  in  form  of  rampart  and 
bastion  and  battlement.  The  illusion  is  so 
complete  that  beholders  often  insist  that 
these  great  natural  wonders  must  be  works 
of  art.  though  a  near  view  is  said  to  com- 
pletely dispel  the  illusion.  The  locality  is 
called  Castle  Park.  A  few  miles  east  of  it, 
and  almost  surrounded  bv  one  of  the  o-reat 


TO    THE  PACIFIC.  \[s\ 

natural  walls  before  alluded  to,  is  a  collec- 
tion of  huge  boulders,  each  of  thousands  of 
tons  weight,  amid  which  are  pretty  little  fir 
trees  growing.  This  would  be  appropriately 
called  Boulder  Park,  though  it  is  designated 
by  no  name.  The  magnificent  and  charm- 
ing localities  in  this  section  seem  to  be  too 
numerous  to  afford  each  a  name. 

A  diversion  from  landscape  viewing  was 
here  occasioned,  for  a  moment,  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  bear  and  two  cubs  leisurely 
ascending  a  foothill  of  one  of  the  Wahsatch 
Mountain  spurs  within  easy  sight  from  the 
car  windows.  Elk,  deer,  antelope,  buftalo, 
coyote,  and  prairie  dogs  without  number,  had 
already  rewarded  our  diligent  watch  in 
localities  where  these  respective  varieties  of 
wild  beasts  were  supposed  to  abound,  but 
never  before  a  wild  bear.  ^Ve  took  breakfast 
at  Eawlins,  seven  thousand  feet  above  the 
sea.  Eagles'  nests  in  the  clifis  are  a  frequent 
sight,  on  many  of  which  the  parent  bird  is 
easily  discerned.     The  Eockies.  still  snow- 


192  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

covered,  present  again  their  familiar  peaks. 
We  have  been  in  sight  of  snow  every  day  for 
more  than  live  weeks,  or  ever  since  the  day 
of  onr  arrival  at  Manitou.  At  Carbon  sta- 
tion are  extensive  coal  fields.  Coal  mining 
is  the  sole  industry  of  the  people  of  this  par- 
ticular region.  Dinner  at  Laramie,  in  sight 
of  the  Black  Hills,  from  which  lirst  named 
place  a  stage  route  runs  direct  to  Dead- 
wood.  Ao-ain  a  series  of  strans^e  rock  for- 
mations,  unlike  anj^  of  those  already  seen, 
among  them  the  Red  Buttes,  a  most  re- 
markable formation.  It  is  as  if  some  chil- 
dren of  giants  had  made  a  thousand  red  mud 
palaces,  and  towers,  and  monuments,  and 
mushrooms,  and  tigers  and  lions,  and  ele- 
phants, and  other  representatives  of  things 
living  and  inanimate,  each  a  hundred  or 
more  feet  high  and  all  of  the  same  bright  red 
mud,  and  had  set  them  up  on  a  great  plain, 
where  after  centuries  they  had  successively 
haixlened  and  begun  to  crumble.  We  see 
them  now  at   the  crumbling   stage.     They 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  |93 

are  a  strange  creation,  and  to  nie  the  most 
unexpected,  so  to  speak,  of  anything  I  have 
seen.  At  Sherman  we  reach  the  summit  of 
our  climb  over  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Here 
we  hnd  the  pyramidal  monument  erected  in 
honor  of  Oakes  Ames,  the  projector  of  the 
Central  Pacific  Railroad.  Six  or  seven 
miles  east  of  Sherman  stands  the  most 
remarkable  of  all  the  wonderful  natural 
fortresses  thus  far  observed.  It  crowns  the 
summit  of  a  great  elevation  on  the  north 
of  the  railroad,  and  covers  apparently  a 
square  mile  of  dead  level.  Years  hence  it 
W'ill  be  classed  among  the  great  natural 
curiosities  of  the  world.  In  proximity  to  it 
is  a  great  boulder  park  similar  to  one  already 
mentioned.  I  regard  the  trouble  and  incon- 
venience and  expense  of  this  trip  as  fully 
compensated  by  the  unique  and  startling 
exhibitions,  done  in  granite  and  sandstone, 
which  have  excited  our  surprise  and  admira- 
tion at  every  point  between  Ogden  and  the 
eastern  slope  of  the  Rockies. 

13 


3^94  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

AVe  reached  Cheyenne  in  time  for  supper, 
having  approached  it  for  thirty  miles  over  a 
delightful  bit  of  prairie  which  extended  to 
the  horizon,  without  stones,  or  trees,  or 
bushes,  or  hillocks, — simply  a  great  green 
grassy  plain.  Darkness  deprives  us  of  an- 
ticipated observations  between  Cheyenne 
and  the  Xebraska  line,  but  the  train  drives 
on  by  night  as  well  as  by  day,  and  we  wake 
Wednesday  morning  to  find  ourselves  in  a 
region  of  farm-houses  and  barns,  and  fenced 
pastures,  and  fields  of  corn  and  wheat,  and 
fruit  and  shade  trees,  and  such  general 
evidences  of  civilization  as  we  have  not  seen 
since  leaving  the  valley  of  the  G-reat  Salt 
Lake.  This  is  Central  Xebraska.  We  reach 
Grand  Island  in  time  for  breakfast.  This  is 
the  first  uncomfortably  warm  weather  we 
have  encountered.  We  have  found  more 
and  warmer  since.  Watches  are  set  ahead 
another  hour  before  reaching  Grand  Island, 
to  correspond  with  local  time.  Dinner  at 
Omaha ;  mercury  at   ninety  in  the  shade. 


TO   THE  PACIFIC.  195 

Crossed  the  mile-and-a-quarter  bridge  over 
the  Missouri  between  Omaha  and  Council 
Bluffs ;  and  lest  I  appear  to  thus  unduly  dig- 
nify the  "  Big  Muddy,"  which  at  this  point 
is  not  as  wide  as  the  Connecticut  at  Hartford, 
let  me  add  that  more  than  half  of  this  bridge 
is  over  a  marsh  or  a  mud  bank.  From  Coun- 
cil Bluffs,  eastward  three  hundred  and  six- 
teen miles,  to  Davenport,  we  run  across  the 
beautiful  farming  lands  of  Iowa.  At  every 
station  we  observe  acres  of  corn  cribs  filled 
with  corn  on  the  ear.  Every  rod  of  land 
seems  to  be  under  cultivation,  which  is  in 
striking  contrast  with  Xevada,  Wyoming,  or 
even  Nebraska,  where  are  untold  millions  of 
acres  without  an  owner  or  occupant  to  turn 
up  one  shovel-full  of  its  yet  undiscovered 
subsoil.  I  understand  now  how  easy  it  must 
be  for  a  man  who  enjoys  farming  or  stock- 
raising,  to  go  into  ecstasies  when  he  gets  into 
such  a  reo:ion  as  Iowa,  where  he  is  confronted 
by  a  wealth  of  soil  never  dreamed  of  in  Xew 
Eno-land,  with  fuliao:e  and  o-rain  fields  and 


196  FROM  XEW  EXGLAXD 

gardens  of  superlative  strength  and  stateli- 
ness  of  growth,  ahnost  without  other  effort 
than  simply  casting  the  seed  upon  the  sur- 
face of  mother  earth.  But,  much  as  1  enjoy 
the  products  of  agriculture,  of  the  garden, 
the  orchard,  the  vineyard,  or  even  the  flow- 
er beds  and  the  orange  groves,  I  can  And 
no  delight  in  any  of  the  processes  involved. 
Excuse  the  confession  :  it  is  gratuitous,  and 
very  likely  implies  a  low  condition  of  man- 
liness. I  had  a  taste  of  farming  in  very 
early  life  which  proved  as  satisfying  as  a 
full  meal. 

We  reached  Davenport  at  eight  o'clock 
Thursday  morning,  and  from  that  point  our 
return  has  been  over  precisely  the  same 
route  as  that  taken  by  the  party  on  its 
outward  trip.  At  three  p.  m.  the  same  day 
we  were  at  Chicago,  where  we  vrere  given  a 
rest  of  five  hours  with  supper  at  the  Sherman 
House.  Resuming  our  places  in  the  sleeper 
shortly  after  eight  o'clock,  we  proceeded  by 
the  Grand  Trunk,  expecting  to  reach  Port 


TO    THE  PACIFIC.  ^  I97 

Huron  before  dayliglit.  A  crippled  freight 
train  on  our  path  twenty  miles  out  of  Chi- 
cago, delayed  us,  however,  several  hours, 
and  we  barely  reached  Lansing,  Mich.,  at 
half  past  seven  Friday  morning,  stopping  at 
Durand  for  breakfast  an  hour  later.  We 
crossed  the  great  St.  Clair  River,  or  straits, 
at  Port  Huron,  by  ferry,  occupying  an  hour 
in  the  transit.  Thence  to  Niagara  Falls 
direct,  reaching  and  crossing  Suspension 
Bridge  at  fifteen  minutes  past  eight  in  the 
evening,  too  near  dark  to  get  more  than  a 
glimpse  of  the  outline  of  the  great  cataract. 
We  feel  a  little  disappointed  at  the  delays 
which  set  us  down  here  six  hours  behind 
time,  for  we  had  hoped  to  be  able  go 
ashore  and  get  a  nearer  and  more  satisfac- 
tory view  of  Kiagara  than  can  be  obtained 
from  Suspension  Bridge  or  any  other  point 
on  the  railroad.  But  I  am  sure  the  manage- 
ment and  the  train  hands  have  done  every 
thing  in  their  power,  though  unsuccessfully, 
to  help  us  out  of  the  trouble  forced  upon 


193  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

our  party  by  the  derailed  freight.  From 
this  point  we  shall  proceed  by  the  West 
Shore  &  Buffalo  Eailway  to  Rotterdam 
Junction,  thence  by  the  Hoosac  Tunnel  and 
Fitchburg  Eoads  to  Greenfield,  the  Connec- 
ticut River  Road  to  Springfield,  and  our 
own  Consolidated  Road  to  Hartford.  If 
we  have  good  luck-  I  shall  be  with  you  at 
seven  forty  Saturday  evening. 

The  party,  which  left  Boston  more  than 
sixty  strong,  is  pretty  well  broken  up  even 
at  this  point.  Of  the  original  number, 
three  dropped  out  at  Santa  F6,  one  at  Colo- 
rado Springs,  three  at  Monterey,  eight  at 
San  Francisco,  two  at  Truckee,  two  at 
Omaha,  one  at  West  Liberty  in  Iowa,  one  at 
Davenport,  eighteen  at  Chicago,  one  left  us 
here  at  Xiagara,  four  will  leave  at 
Greenfield,  two  at  Gardner,  five  at  Ayer 
Junction,  only  thirteen  remaining  to  go 
through  to  Boston. 

And  now,  as  this  two  months  of  pleasur- 
incr  amono:  eioliteen  states  and  territories  is 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  I99 

about  to  terminate,  let  me  say  a  few  tilings 
personal  of  the  i^artj  in  whose  more  or  less 
intimate  companionship  the  long  journey 
has  been  accomplished,  and  with  most  of 
whom  I  have  already  exchanged  the  final 
hand-shakings  and  spoken  the  good-by 
words. 

I  do  not  believe  that  a  party  of  kinder- 
hearted  or  more  considerate  gentlemen  and 
ladies  ever  crossed  the  continent  in  company. 
The  situation  has  been  uniformly  pleasant, 
and  often  under  adverse  circumstances  when 
the  good  nature  of  the  party  and  of  the 
manao'ement  was  severely  tested.  I  wish 
to  make  particular  mention  of  my  early  and 
well  esteemed  Connecticut  friends,  Dr. 
Pinney  and  Mr.  Merriman,  with  their 
estimable  ladies ;  Mr.  AVhidden  of  Boston, 
whose  pleasant  face,  and  that  of  his  son,  I 
shall  hope  to  see  often  in  the  future ;  Mr. 
Fish  of  Brooklyn,  X.  Y.,  my  most  frequent 
companion  in  tramps  and  seances  without 
number;    Hon.  Mr.   Marx    and    family    of 


200  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

Toledo ;  Mr.  Hamilton  and  family  of  Pliil- 
adelpliia  ;  Mr.  Valpey  and  wife  of  Lynn ; 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Howe,  Mrs.  Brown,  the  Worces- 
ter delei>:ation  of  gentlemen  and  ladies,  to 
all  of  whom  I  am  indebted  for  constant 
personal  courtesies.  I  shall  never  cease  to 
recall  pleasant  memories  of  days  and  nights 
in  the  same  section  with  my  robust  partner, 
Mr.  C.  T.  Almy,  where  the  former  were  en- 
livened by  his  inimitable  stories,  and  the 
latter  by  his  equally  inimitable  snoring. 
And  I  must  not  net^lect  a  modest  allusion 
to  the  kind-hearted  and  irrepressible  Mrs. 
Nichols,  whose  repeated  request  to  "  put 
my  name  in  your  letter,''  is  at  length  affirm- 
atively heeded.  I  take  the  liberty  of  call- 
ing these  names  because  they  happen  to  rep- 
resent a  few  with  whom  I  became  most 
familiar ;  if  I  felt  equal  freedom  with  others 
it  would  be  an  easy  and  pleasant  task  to 
connect  the  name  of  each  of  our  sixty  odd 
tourists  with  some  interesting  situation  or 
incident  of  the  trip,  which  we  who  partici- 


TO    THE   PACIFIC.  201 

pated  sliould  recognize  at  a  glance.  Such 
action  would,  however,  be  unpardonable  in 
this  correspondence,  and  I  will  not  attempt 
it.  I  am  ready  to  give  a  testimonial  in 
favor  of  every  railroad  over  which  we  have 
traveled,  although  you  will  grant  that  I 
have  not  lumbered  up  your  columns  with 
puffs  of  this  or  any  other  description.  Per- 
mit me  in  closing  to  express  the  opinion  of 
our  entire  company  in  favor  of  the  excellent 
management  which  has  not  only  taken  us 
over  eight  thousand  five  hundred  miles  of 
territory,  some  of  it  in  places  of  great  peril, 
and  now  returned  us  to  our  homes  without 
an  accident  of  the  slightest  magnitude,  but 
that  has  succeeded  in  transforming  a  long 
and  tiresome  ride  into  a  delightful  excur- 
sion and  a  constant  picnic. 


I  re-open  this  letter,  as  the  train  is  ap- 
proaching Hartford,  to  remark  that  the  hills 
and  valleys  and  streams  and  people  of  Con- 
necticut never  looked  so  good  to  me  as  now. 


202  FROM  NEW  ENGLAND 

Home  again  !  Back  from  the  land  of  gold 
and  silver  and  '•  bits,"  to  the  land  also  of 
greenbacks  and  good  honest  dimes,  and 
nickels  and  pennies !  Back  to  the  land  of 
men  and  women,  as  well  as  of  mountains 
and  mines  and  prairies  !  Back  to  my  home, 
and  all  it  contains  and  signifies  !  I  wonld 
not  exchange  one  conntj  of  old  Connecti- 
cut for  whole  states  in  the  far  west,  unless  I 
could  sell  out  at  my  own  price  on  acquiring 
the  new  possession.  I  wish,  more  than 
ever,  to  visit  every  part  of  our  immense  and 
wonderful  country,  but  ^ew  England  shall 
ever  contain  the  home  to  which  I  will  re- 
turn again  ! 

J.  A.  S. 


TO   TUE  PACIFIC.  20^ 


EEUNIOK. 


While  in  transit  from  Ogden  to  Chicago, 
a  formal  meeting  of  the  excursionists  was 
held,  to  provide  for  one  or  more  reunions 
after  the  return  of  the  party  to  their  respec- 
tive homes.  A  permanent  organization  of 
the  "Eaymond  Pacific  Excursion  Party  of 
April  2i,  1884,"  was  effected  by  the  appoint- 
ment of  Thos.  J.  AYhidden  as  President, 
Mrs.  J.  E.  Bacon,  Yice-President,  E.  A. 
Merriman,  Secretary,  and  Chas.  T.  Almy, 
Treasurer.  It  was  voted  to  hold  a  reunion  at 
the  call  of  the  Secretary,  and  the  four  officers 
above  named  were  authorized  to  name  the 
place  and  date. 


26952 


B     000  008  264     4 


